No Longer Envious
by Quiet Leaf
Summary: In exchange for what's left of his Stone, Envy gets pulled into the Harry Potter world. What happens to him? Well, let's just say that Envy finally has people to pick him up when he falls. **HIATUS-ISH** Might update every once in a while.
1. Chapter 1

" _Hello, little Homunculus."_

Envy turned slowly on his tiny legs to face the being in front of him, looking away from the large stone gate. The creature was white, and its features seemed to consist of little more than a mouth. Other than that, the thing looked exactly like him.

"Wh-where am I?" He hated how his voice sounded. High, weak. _Pathetic._ Just like the feeble humans that he was jealous of.

The white being seemed to grin, and it was then that Envy remembered the Fullmetal Alchemist's words in Gluttony's stomach.

" _The Portal of Truth! But_ — _but it wasn't pitch black and filled with a sea of blood. It was more like_ — _like an entirely white void."_

He gasped. "The Truth? The Portal of Truth?"

" _You are correct, little Homunculus."_

"But—"

" _That's impossible? You might once have been one with the Dwarf in the Flask, but a single soul was dominant in your Philosopher's Stone. That soul is you."_

Envy couldn't find it in himself to speak, so he remained silent.

" _There are still a few souls left in your Stone, and of course, they have to go somewhere, so I'm going to give you what you want."_

The Homunculus gasped as black hands, small by human standards but bigger than his own, took ahold of him and started to pull. Soon he was enveloped in the darkness of the gate.

'-'

Envy groaned and opened his eyes, only to close them again as they were assaulted by blinding light. He blinked a few times until they adjusted, then looked around. He wasn't exactly pleased with the sight that was looking back at him.

Because it, or should I say 'they', were indeed looking back at him.

Several human children of varying ages were leaning over homunculus. One, who had evidently been poking him, backed away.

Envy leapt to his feet, noticing his lack of height, but not thinking much of it. At the moment, that didn't matter much. "Get away from me, you brats!"

The newly dubbed 'brats' jumped back and started whispering to each other. A particularly loud girl said, "Did he have to wake up?"

Envy snarled, but didn't get the chance to retaliate before the small crowd was dispersed and a woman bustled through and started dragging him away. "Let go of me, you bi—"

She slapped a hand over his mouth. "For the last time, Envy dear, watch you language! Now, let's get you up to my office, see what's wrong with you."

Envy tried and failed to tear his arm away from from the woman's strong grip. "There's nothing wrong with me, now let me go!"

She ignored the last bit in favor of lecturing him. "Not if the blood pouring out of your head has anything to say about it!"

It was then that Envy noticed the sharp pain on the side of his head. He let out a hiss, but nothing more.

"And fainting is not a good sign! I knew you were trouble the moment you entered this orphanage. Hit your head within the first week! That must be why you turned out like this—I'm sure you wouldn't have liked getting into trouble so much if not for that concussion."

Tired of listening to the woman rambling and wanting nothing more than to leave her presence, Envy attempted to transform his arm into a snake—it might be fun it watch her choke.

Unfortunately, it didn't work.

"Huh?" He looked at his arm in shock.

"Yes, I know, you don't remember it. That's just how bad it was, though you were pretty young at the time."

He tried to free himself again, and failed. Again. He let out a growl of frustration and tried to wrench his arm away from the woman. His attempts were futile, to say the least.

Footsteps hurried down the corridor behind them, and Envy whipped his head around to see who it was.

An older woman with graying light-brown hair was hurrying towards them. "Ms. Partch!" she called. "What's happened to him this time?"

"He fainted, Eliza. I'm taking him up to my office right now."

'Eliza' shook her head despairingly. "That boy, he gets sent to your infirmary almost as much as the children he injures."

"Who are you calling a kid?" Envy snapped, going red when he realized how much he sounded like the Fullmetal brat just now.

'Ms. Partch', who was apparently now a nurse, barely spared him a glance, choosing instead to continue her conversation with Eliza.

He opened his mouth to yell at her, but paused when the memories of what happened in the portal came rushing back to him.

" _. . . So I'm going to give you what you want."_

Envy frowned. Truth's words seemed to reverberate off the inside of his skull. What did he want? Did he want what the humans had? No! He would never stoop to the level of those weaklings! He might be jealous of them, but he certainly didn't want that.

. . . Right?

'-'

An hour later, Envy stared into the bathroom mirror in shock.

He had a question. One simple question. One question that seemed so complicated to his jumbled mind that he was barely able to comprehend it.

 _Since when had he been a kid?_

That's right. He was a child. He couldn't be bothered to figure out what age he looked, but he gathered from Eliza (Eliza Todd, if he wasn't mistaken. He'd found out she was the owner of this . . . what was it called? Orphanage?) and Ms. Partch's (Sarah Partch, he was pretty sure) conversation that he had turned eleven a little under two months ago. He hadn't really thought about what they were saying before, but now, remembering his apparent lack of height and looking at his own boyish face, it seemed like it should have been more obvious that something was wrong with him.

Where had Truth sent him? It had left him only those cryptic words. But he didn't want this! To be a kid in an orphanage, have no idea where he was, with people looking over his head like he wasn't worth paying attention to? That was the last thing he wanted, damn it!

Calming down (a _little_ ) he examined himself. It wasn't his usual look, what he was seeing in the mirror.

His hair, although it was his usual black, was not as long as he usually kept it. It didn't go past his shoulders. He tried to change it, but yet again it didn't work. Frowning, he tried again, concentrating hard with his face scrunched up. To his surprise, his hair slowly began to grow longer until it was back to normal.

Grinning, he attempted to turn his arm into a snake again.

It didn't work.

Growling, he slammed his fist into the mirror. Instead of breaking, it caused his hand to throb painfully. He winced and rubbed it, then began to ponder another question that had sprung to mind.

How did these humans know his name? They spoke as if he had been around them for awhile. He was just lucky they hadn't gotten suspicious—after all, he hadn't acted like he knew them, had he?

But back to the matter at hand. Why couldn't he transform his arm? He could grow his hair out, with a lot of effort, _so why not the arm?_

'-'

Envy lay in bed, staring at the ceiling. He had discovered that he couldn't change his appearance beyond human features. More disturbingly, it seemed he had become _human_. At the moment he was tired—not hungry since dinner time had come and gone, but tired.

He ran his fingers through his hair, which was short again. He had decided that he should keep what little of his abilities he had left a secret to give him the advantage if a fight broke out. Or an advantage in any situation, really.

Thoughts still whirling around in his head, Envy drifted off to sleep. For the first time, he observed, in his very existence.

'-'

Full Name: Envy Novus

Birthday: 7 May 1980

* * *

 **So, that profile at the end is incomplete. It'll grow, and within the next few chapters the whole thing should be there. I decided on Envy's birthday by putting it in the spring, the same season during which the Promised Day happened. His last name is Latin for 'new' (or at least I think it is** — **Google translate shouldn't be trusted).**

 **I'd appreciate some feedback! I don't think this chapter is the best, so it would be nice to know what others think.**

 **-The Leaf on Italy's Head**


	2. Chapter 2

Envy woke in a cold sweat, gasping for breath. He looked around frantically, but calmed down when he realized that the Flame Alchemist was nowhere in sight. Cursing himself for his almost human stupidity, he got up and started looking for a pair of socks.

During the week he'd been here, he had discovered it was best to act like all of the other kids—except he could be mean. Apparently, that was normal for him, or whoever used to own this body. He'd come to the conclusion that he had stolen it from someone else with a similar, yet less sadistic personality, whose name was also 'Envy'; furthermore, he was unable to escape the orphanage. There was always someone patrolling the corridors and watching all of the kids, and since his abilities were lessened, he had lost his shape-shifting advantage. He was pretty sure he could give himself the appearance of an adult, but it was difficult enough that he had yet to succeed.

Envy picked a pair of socks—black—from the floor, and, just as he did so, a knock came from the door.

"Novus! A 'Minerva McGonagall' is here to see you!"

That was another thing he had discovered. His last name was 'Novus'. It sounded far too much like 'novice' for his liking.

"Okay, okay! I'm up!" Envy pulled on a sock and the door swung open. The person who stepped in was odd, to say the least.

She was tall, with black hair put up in a tight bun and wore emerald green clothes that look suspiciously like robes. A pair of square spectacles rested on the bridge of her nose, and she had a stern expression, one which looked almost as if it was engraved on her face.

The new woman turned to face Eliza. "If you could leave us for a moment, Mrs. Todd, it would be most appreciated."

The orphanage owner looked startled. "I would, but I'm afraid tha—"

Sighing, the lady pulled out a long stick. She waved it, and a slightly confused expression overcame Mrs. Todd's face. "Ah, yes, I'll be back in . . . a while . . ." She then turned and walked away, her gait a bit wobbly.

The tall woman turned back to Envy. "Mr. Novus, what you just saw was an example of magic."

Envy's eyebrows shot up. Whatever he had been expecting, it certainly wasn't that. He sighed. "Listen, old lady. If you think I'm going to fall for a cheap trick like that, you're sadly mistaken."

McGonagall—at least, that's who he thought she was—looked at him over the top of her glasses. She then raised her wand, flicked it, and his bed instantly morphed into a chair.

Envy whistled. "Impressive, impressive. You have some tricks up your sleeve! Got anything else?"

McGonagall changed it back. "I see that you're still skeptical."

"Oh, no, I'm just curious." He grinned.

"Well, you can learn about it here." She reached into her robes and pulled out a letter, which she held out to him.

Envy eyed the yellow parchment disbelievingly, then took it from her. "Mr. E. Novus, Room 7, Todd Orphanage, York Way, London." He laughed. "Very specific! Are you a stalker? Hm?" He turned it over the envelope and was met with the sight of a wax seal—he didn't think they had those here—which he tore off. "Hogwarts? Seriously? Who chose a name like that for a school? Albus Dumbledore, Order of Merlin, blah blah blah . . . Dear Mr. Novus, we are pleased to inform you that you have been accepted at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, blah blah blah . . . what is this crap?"

McGonagall raised her eyebrows. "It's exactly what it looks like."

"So it's a prank?"

The witch, if the letter was anything to go by, spluttered for a moment, unable to find words, before Envy slapped her on the back. "I'm only messing with you."

She gave a small huff as she regained her composure. "Well Mr. Novus, do you want to come to the school?"

Envy shrugged. "Oh, I don't know. Is it more exciting than this place?"

McGonagall surveyed his bland room for a moment before nodding. "I would think so."

"Great, I'm in."

'-'

Envy gaped at the hole that was expanding in the wall. Of course, he wasn't focusing on the gap so much as the sight beyond.

Diagon Alley.

He snorted at the thought of the name—this Wizarding World had the strangest titles. First Hogwarts, now Diagonally? Whoops, he'd meant to say 'Diagon Alley'. But back on the topic of the place itself . . .

Envy had never seen so much color in one place. He'd heard the noise, of course. The chaotic sounds of explosions and screams in Ishval had been most entertaining.

However, here in the Alley, people were chattering away, owls were hooting, and other animals shrieked to their hearts content. The sound of feet meeting the cobblestone street filled his ears. As opposed to Ishval, these happy noises were pretty annoying.

He was snapped out of his thoughts by McGonagall's crisp voice. "Robes first. Then we will get your supplies, a pet—if you would like—and your wand."

"A wand . . ." Envy muttered. "Sounds like something out of a fairy-tale."

McGonagall seemed to have heard him, because she replied, "And where do you think those fairy-tales came from?"

Robes, Envy decided, where not something he liked. More specifically, he didn't like being measured for them. The only upside to that part of their shopping trip was that he got his customary headband back.

Buying a cauldron had been a simple affair. The store seemed to have ordered the particular kind he needed in bulk for the upcoming school year. Buying the potion ingredients had not been so pleasant as the shop they'd bought them from was very smelly.

The rest of the trip was easy. The scales and such were a piece of cake, and the books took a little time, but the store was interesting. This lasted up until the wands.

Envy stared up at the peeling sign—it really needed replacing—that indicated that this was a wand shop he was standing in front of. He shrugged and followed McGonagall inside. In the echoing silence that followed the ringing of the bell, he stared around the shop in unwanted curiosity.

Against the walls were stacked a lot of shelves, all containing long thin boxes that were presumably holding wands.

He reached out to take one from its place, but was interrupted by an elderly voice. "I wouldn't touch that one, if I were you."

Envy spun around and came face to face with an old man who had large, silvery eyes. He wiped the surprised expression off his face. "Are you Ollivander, old man?" he demanded.

"Yes, that would be me." Ollivander pulled a tape measure out of his pocket and set about measuring Envy.

Great, more of this.

Ollivander started searching the shelves, and Envy attempted to look up so he could watch the tape measure discover the exact length and width of his left eyebrow.

Ollivander soon returned with a few boxes, and the tape measure crumpled to the floor. "Willow and phoenix feather, nine and a half inches, fairly whippy." He shoved the pale stick into Envy's hand. "Give it a little wave."

Envy stared at the seemingly useless object he was now holding, then, feeling quite stupid, he started to lift it. He had barely begun to do so when it was snatched from him and he was given another.

"Holly and dragon heartstring, eleven inches, stiff."

Envy started to lift this one as well, but it was also snatched away. "For crying out loud! I thought you were trying to sell me a wand. And why don't I get to choose one for myself?" he added childishly.

Ollivander tutted. "The wand chooses the wizard, Mr. Novus."

The former Homunculus allowed himself a moment to wonder how the crazy geezer knew his name before opening his mouth to ask if the wands were sentient. Before he could, he found another one in his hand. It gave him a kind of warm feeling.

"I believe this is the one. Hawthorn and dragon heartstring, ten and a quarter inches, flexible."

Envy finally got to wave the piece of wood, and it yielded results. Red and green sparks shot out of the tip, which he found pleasing. Now _this_ had power!

"Yes, yes, I thought so," Ollivander mumbled. He gave his own wand a flick, and the one unopened box and its two companions flew back to their shelves. "That would be seven galleons, if you please."

'-'

For the most part, McGonagall and Envy's journey back through Diagon Alley was silent, until the former asked a question. "Would you like an owl, Mr. Novus?"

Envy looked up, startled. "What?"

"I asked if you would like an owl. It's a handy way of communicating with your friends and family."

He stared at her in disbelief, then snorted. "I'm from an orphanage, you know. I don't have family, and I don't do 'friends'."

McGonagall looked down at him pityingly, and Envy inwardly fumed. He sort of understood why the Fullmetal brat felt so strongly about being short now. "It would give you a sense of companionship, at the very least.

Envy sighed. "Fine, I'll get one."

A couple of minutes later, the two of them stopped in front of Eeylops Owl Emporium and entered. The sound of squawking birds assaulted their ears at full throttle, but the aging witch didn't seem to mind. "Pick anything you like," she said to him, leaning close to his ear so that she could be heard.

Envy walked along the rows of cages, trying to figure out if he actually wanted any of the creatures they contained. He passed by a very white Snowy Owl and decided against it—too bright for his liking. Instead, he stopped in front of a different one. It seemed to be glaring at the owl next door, which was making a loud screeching noise.

This bird had a gray head and a ring of black around its face. The top of its head was black, speckled with white, and its back was brown and covered in white spots. Its downy front was white and striped horizontally with brown.

After giving the owl a bit of thought, he pointed at it with his thumb while looking McGonagall in the eye. "I'll take that one."

'-'

Envy was returned to the orphanage with instructions on how to get through to Platform Nine and Three-Quarters. How to get to Kings Cross Station was not specified, but it didn't matter; the place was right across the street.

He poked his owl through the the bars of its cage, and it nipped at his fingers. Envy didn't give it the chance to bite before he pulled back. "Well," he sighed, "it's going to be an interesting year."

'-'

Full Name: Envy Novus

Birthday: 7 May 1980

Wand: Hawthorn and Dragon Heartstring, ten and a quarter inches, flexible.

* * *

 **THANK YOU GUYS SO MUCH FOR ALL THE FOLLOWS AND THE FAVORITES AND THE REVIEWS. THANK YOU. It's funny, three reviews, six favorites, and twelve follows. Doubling the number three, then doubling the number six.**

 **I will reply via PM to any reviews I think warrant replying to, and if it's something that every reader needs to know I will reply to it in the Authors Note. Thought you ought to know. XD**

 **Anyway, to whom it may concern: McGonagall confunded Mrs. Todd to make her go away. Let's just say she wasn't in a very good mood, but was sort of nice because Envy is apparently an orphan. Envy's owl is a Northern Hawk Owl (I became obsessed with owls at some point during my life and know some stuff about them. XD). You can find out all about what Envy's wand means at pottermore dot com (change that to proper URL) if you click the 'discover' button and look up 'Wand Lengths', 'Wand Cores', or 'Wand Woods', in case you didn't know that already. York Way is very real and it is indeed just across the street from Kings Cross Station.**

 **Also, I decided that the summary was too vague, so I changed it.**

 **-The Leaf on Italy's Head**


	3. Chapter 3

Envy gazed intently at the barrier between platforms nine and ten. Supposedly, it was possible to to walk straight through it and emerge on the wizard platform. Frowning, he reached out a hand and touched the bricks.

It passed through.

Smirking, Envy pushed his trolley through the barrier and onto a loud, steamy platform full of parents and students saying good-byes while their owls, cats, or toads tried to catch their attention. The source of the fog was a large red steam engine with 'Hogwarts Express' embossed on its side.

Envy pushed his trolley forward until it was right up next to the train, then, with quite a bit of effort, hoisted his trunk up and pushed it through the door. Looking around and seeing nowhere to put the cart, he shrugged and left it where it stood while he climbed in.

Most of the other kids had yet to board—it was a quarter past ten—so it didn't take him long to find an empty compartment. Unfortunately, he was soon joined by a blond kid with a pointed chin. And what appeared to be a pair of gorilla bodyguards.

The brat started to babble—something about pure blood and slithering. Envy wasn't paying attention, because he simply didn't care. He was jerked out of his thoughts, however, when the boy snapped at him.

"Hey! Are you listening to me? I asked you what house you think you'll be in."

"Ah." Envy tapped his chin. "Was I listening? No, I really don't care what you have to say."

The boy growled. "Did you even hear my _name?_ "

"Nope," he said cheerfully. "And I don't care! Now, get out of my compartment."

"And why should I?" he sneered.

"It wasn't a request." He cracked his knuckles threateningly, and the kid became paler than he already was. He didn't need to be told a third time to get out. Though he was a bit disappointed that they hadn't put up a fight, Envy smirked out the window, allowing his hair to grow out to its usual length.

The next half hour passed mostly in boredom. He watched a bunch of red-heads come running through the barrier, the odd one out being a boy with black hair. The only exciting part of this small period of time was when he saw a kid with a giant tarantula and went to go see it. If he was correct, the boy's name was 'Lee', but he didn't care much.

The rest of the train ride passed fairly quick. Halfway through he bought food from the trolley using some money McGonagall had given him and whiled away the time by examining the strange treats both with his taste and with his eyes, and when they had almost arrived at Hogwarts he changed into his school robes.

Soon enough, they had arrived at Hogwarts. It had long since gone dark outside, but the light from the lamps on the station were good enough to see by.

"Firs' years! Firs' years over here!"

Envy stepped off the the train, leaving his trunk behind as a voice over the intercom had said, and easily spotted the source of the calls—a very tall, very broad man who was holding up a lantern. He put Envy in mind of a slightly larger, more intelligent version of Sloth.

"All right there, Harry?" he said to someone near the front. Envy snorted—that was favoritism if he ever saw it.

"C'mon, follow me!" The man ushered them along, with more shouts of, "This way!"

The path they walked along was steep and narrow, so they almost had to slip down in single file.

"Yeh'll get yer firs' sight o' Hogwarts in a sec, jus' round this bend here," the man called.

Now, while Envy didn't want to admit it, he was quite impressed with the castle. It could only be described as incredible, with its high towers adding to its enormous size-it was much larger than Central HQ.

A few minutes later, the former homunculus found himself gliding across a lake in a boat with three other brats. Hogwarts was soon out of sight, and Envy spent a great deal of his remaining time on the vessel impatiently tapping his fingers on the side of the boat and peering into the water below. He frowned once when he saw a long tentacle, but it was gone a moment later.

They eventually reached a dark underground harbor, the only light being the large man's lantern. The soon-to-be-students followed him along a passageway which sloped up, and they soon came up under the shadow of the castle. The giant was followed the last few yards to a the structure and up some steps to a large oak door. A few loud knocks later and it was opened by McGonagall.

"The firs' years, Professor McGonagall."

"Thank you, Hagrid. I will take them from here."

Ah, so that was his name.

McGonagall pulled the door wider, and Envy was one of the first to enter.

The entrance hall was enormous—quite befitting of the castle it belonged to. The place was lit by torches, and the ceiling was too high to make out. A large marble staircase led to higher floors.

They followed McGonagall across the stone floor—the sound of voices, presumably the older students, was muffled by a set of doors—and they were led into a smaller chamber. "Welcome to Hogwarts," McGonagall began, continuing on a speech about the houses and the Sorting Ceremony. Envy had no choice but to listen, as he knew nothing about either subject. Perhaps he should have allowed the blond brat to stay in his compartment . . . eh, whatever.

They were told to "Wait quietly until the rest of the school was ready for them", though not in those exact words, and McGonagall left them to their own devices. Instead of remaining quiet, the brats started chattering away at each other, trying to figure out how they were to be Sorted. One idiotic redhead mentioned something about it hurting—Envy snorted at that. Humans usually didn't harm their young.

The murmuring continued for a minute before several screams emitted from the back. Envy looked up from where he was contemplating what house he might be put in and was startled to see about twenty pearly white beings floating through the wall—probably ghosts. It wasn't hard to believe that such things existed after all that had happened. The picture of Agrippa on his Chocolate Frog card had _moved_ , and there were broomsticks in Diagon Alley that could, apparently, fly.

The ghosts—for that was indeed what they were, if their argument was anything to go by, something about "Peeves" and "He's not really even a ghost"—stopped and talked briefly to the first years before being interrupted and sent on their way by McGonagall when she returned.

"Now form a line," McGonagall told the first years, "and follow me."

At last, they were allowed through the double doors and into the Great Hall. It was lit by a multitude of candles floating over the four long tables that took up a lot of the room. The surfaces seemed covered in glittering gold dishes and utensils, and at the very end of the hall was another long table where the teachers sat.

"It's bewitched to look like the sky outside. I read about it in _Hogwarts, A History._ "

Envy spared a glance to the girl who said that—bushy hair, large front teeth—then looked around, trying to figure out what she had been talking about. The most plausible possibility being the ceiling, he tipped his head back and looked at it. And he was right, the ceiling looked almost as if it were the sky.

Looking down again, he watched as McGonagall placed a stool in front of the first years and put a pointed hat on top of it. It was dirty, patched, and frayed, and Envy was sure that the worst clean freaks would scream at the sight of it.

He stared at it along with the rest of the school, and a moment later, it twitched and a rip near the brim of the hat opened—and then it started to _sing_. Envy stared at it in utter astonishment. He knew he really shouldn't be surprised at this point, considering magic and the Alphonse Elric, but a singing hat was absurd. Of course, he couldn't be sure about whether or not there was a soul bound to the hat. If so, he almost felt sorry for the poor guy. Almost.

When the hat finally stopped singing, the whole hall burst into applause, and McGonagall stepped forward with a long scroll. "When I call your name, you will put on the hat and sit on the stool to be sorted. Abbot, Hannah!"

A girl approached the stool timidly and sat on it, and McGonagall dropped the hat on her head. "HUFFLEPUFF!" the hat roared a moment later. The sorting continued in this fashion, then finally, "Novus, Envy!"

He strolled up to the stool with confidence, although he didn't particularly like being stared at by such a large audience, sat down, and allowed the hat to fall on his head and cover his eyes.

"Ah, what an interesting child you are," said a small voice. Envy didn't jump—back in his world, Pride talked to him out of nowhere sometimes, so he was used to it. "But not a hard choice. Sly and cunning, not particularly loyal. Bold, a trait of Gryffindor, but that is not the house for you. Very clever, but Ravenclaw is not your fit. SLYTHERIN!" Envy plucked the hat from his head and padded down to the cheering table with green and silver banners. A couple of older students cleared a space for him and where he sat down, and the Sorting continued.

"Potter, Harry!"

The hall fell silent, then whispers swept through the room. Envy snorted—what was so interesting about a scrawny little kid?

When Potter was sorted into Gryffindor, the table with red and gold banners hanging over it burst into cheers, and two identical redheads—the stupid boy's brothers?—started shouting, "We got Potter! We got Potter!"

Envy still didn't understand why the hall was so excited by the kid.

The Sorting ended at last when "Zabini, Blaise!" was sorted into Slytherin.

The feast was interesting-the food appeared on the table by magic, and Dumbledore started it with the words, "Nitwit, Blubber, Oddment, Tweak!", causing Envy to wonder if the geezer had a screw loose.

By the time the feast was over, Envy was feeling a bit befuddled by all the food he had consumed, something which he did not appreciate—he preferred to be alert at all times.

The students made their way down to the Slytherin dormitories. The common room was long and low with rough stone walls. High-backed black chairs were scattered about, as well as a few sofas, and round green lanterns hung from the ceiling by chains. Small tables sat beside a few of the chairs, and a portion of the room was illuminated by a roaring fire under an elaborately carved mantle.

It was also underground, like Father's lair. Home sweet home.

"First year dorms for boys are over there," called an older student, pointing to a door. Envy was pretty sure he was a prefect, whatever that was. "Go down the hall, fourth door on the left will be yours." Another prefect, female this time, told the girls where to go, but Envy didn't stick around to listen.

The dorm room was nice, with a green carpet and beds that seemed to enclose you in their folds. A couple months ago, Envy wouldn't have cared for such things. Now, however, he couldn't help feeling slightly pleased with the luxurious living area.

And it was with similar thoughts in mind that Envy drifted into the depths of sleep.

'-'

Full Name: Envy Novus

Birthday: 7 May 1980

Wand: Hawthorn and Dragon Heartstring, ten and a quarter inches, flexible.

House: Slytherin.

Parents: Connor Novus (half-blood) and Lucy Novus (muggle).

* * *

 **I see no reason not to put the names of Envy's 'parents'. *shrug* Not much Envy dialogue in this chapter. It saddens me, but that's just how it happened.**

 **You may have noticed that a few of the lines (Hagrid calling for first years and McGonagall's lines) were quoted directly from the book. If so, congratulations. If not, whatever.**

 **(Why wouldn't Envy be interested in a giant tarantula? I know that much more exciting things have happened in his life, but he is in a child's body and has a bit of a child's mind.)**

 **Ugh, this chapter gave me such a hard time. You see, I hate having to use the book for reference all the time. I'm also a perfectionist about canon happenings. The latter conflicted with the former, and I kept having to look into the book to find people's exact lines and figure out what random words (i.e. Sorting) had to be capitalized. And then I had to grab the second book so I could see the description of the common room, even though I could just look up pictures from Pottermore on the internet. *sigh***

 **And now: I totally forgot last chapter that I was going to have Envy attempt to enter Knockturn Alley, so it'll happen in the second book instead. Yes, this will (hopefully) go through all seven books. No, I will not make them overly long. I won't go into detail about some parts because I don't want this series to be really long and annoying for people to read when they find it after it's finished. The only reason I went into detail about these last few chapters is that they are the set up and are not things that you, the readers, were familiar with up until you read them.**

 **(I don't blame you if you didn't read all of that, it came out much longer than I meant it to be.)**

 **Also, I decided that the dorms would be fancy. Slytherin was a blood purist, he probably liked luxury.**

 **You may thank Robin Rani for this chapter. If my older sister hadn't kept pestering me for more, this probably would not have come to you today.**

 **-The Leaf on Italy's Head**


	4. Chapter 4

The next day, everyone was still staring in awe at the scrawny kid. Envy was confused, but he wasn't about to ask someone about it—that would be embarrassing. He just wished he knew . . .

The first month of classes was odd—well, to Envy, at least. He found it very hard to remember the way around, and he discovered many things while wandering: there were steps that you had to jump over because they vanished at inopportune moments, and several of these resided on the many staircases, which were all very different. The portraits talked and moved, and they could visit each other if they wanted to. There were doors that wouldn't let you through unless you asked nicely or tickled them, and some doors weren't doors at all. On occasion, ghosts would glide out through a wall or and straight into you—literally. It was rather a shock, as it felt like a bucket of ice cold water being poured on your head. The first time this had happened to Envy, he had started to scream at the ghost who had done it—a tall, proud woman. She had completely ignored him, much to his chagrin. This little outburst was part of the reason that knowledge of Envy's short temper spread so quickly.

Worse than the ghosts, however, was that Peeves they had been talking about, who turned out to be a poltergeist. True to his kind, he caused all sorts of mayhem—pulling carpets from under students' feet, throwing bits of chalk, dropping ink bottles—and it was quite irritating. Then there was the caretaker, Argus Filch, who was always wandering the corridors and sneering, trying to find excuses to punish students. He had a cat, Mrs. Norris, and if she thought you'd done something wrong she would go running to her master, who would be there within seconds. Envy had managed to avoid detention for his shouting at the ghost—the Gray Lady—and was let off with only a warning. However, despite that, he was given detention the very next day for reasons unknown to him.

He had been quite tempted to kick the cat at the time.

Classes were different from those of a normal school, of course. While Charms surprised him (Flitwick made objects fly around the room!), he was pleased with Transfiguration, as it reminded him of his own lessened abilities. They had been made to turn matchsticks into needles during the first class, and Envy had succeeded along with a 'Miss Granger' from a different class that had taken place earlier.

Astronomy was very boring, in his opinion. All you did was stare up through a telescope and learn the names of different stars. Herbology took place three times a week, and was marginally more exciting than Astronomy. He still had to learn names for things, but the plants had uses, and some of them (more like half) were even a bit dangerous.

History of Magic was even worse than Astronomy—Envy couldn't go fifteen minutes through that class without falling asleep. That was just how boring Professor Binns was.

Defense Against the Dark Arts was a disappointment. Envy hadn't been looking forward to it anyway, he would have preferred it to be ' _Offense_ Against the Dark Arts', but it was completely lame. Quirrel was always stuttering and was extremely jumpy. The classroom smelled like garlic, presumably to ward off vampires, and the teacher seemed afraid to go anywhere near dangerous topics—not that he didn't try.

Envy turned out to be very bad at Potions. He dawdled too much in examining the potion ingredients and left cure for boils to simmer for too long, _and_ he was unfamiliar with this world's measuring techniques. It didn't explode or melt his cauldron, unlike Neville Longbottom's, but it smelled horrible and looked somewhat similar to vomit. The teacher, Snape, chose not to comment. It seemed he had used up his malicious words when he had been picking on the scrawny kid (Harry Potter, if the whispers and Sorting were anything to go by). The fact that they seemed to dislike each other surprised Envy—everyone other than the man, himself, and several of his fellow Slytherins seemed quite enamored with the boy.

Speaking of his fellow Slytherins, he hadn't managed to make friends with any of them yet, and it was very difficult for him to tell himself that he wasn't getting a bit lonely. But he still ignored the little (loud) voice that kept telling him he wanted friends and continued going about as usual. This meant that the days that passed by were very boring (lonely) until a notice appeared on the bulletin board in the Slytherin common room announcing that the first years would be having flying lessons with the Gryffindors, who they seemed to have a rivalry with. Why they were being put in classes together when they so obviously hated each other, Envy had no idea.

In the days leading up to the flying lessons, Envy discovered that broomsticks were very popular—and that the brats were more than happy to spill anything they knew about flying and their 'adventures', which weren't nearly as dangerous as some things Envy had been through. When the day finally arrived, Envy found himself staring skeptically at a broom and wondering if it could support his weight—it looked about ready to crack.

Madam Hooch had told them all to stick their right hands over their brooms and say 'up'. Unlike everyone else, he had yet to perform either action.

"Is something wrong, Novus?" Hooch called.

Envy looked up. "Yeah, how are these supposed to _fly?_ "

Madam Hooch raised a single eyebrow. "Magic. Now, follow the instructions."

Envy rolled his eyes and looked around. Seeing a broom fly into someone's hand, however, he let out a sigh and did as he was told. A few tries later, he was firmly keeping hold of his broom as it attempted to fly away. He briefly wondered if it disliked him before pushing the thought out of his mind. Brooms weren't sentient.

Once everyone had their cleaning appliances—or perhaps that was not what they were—off the ground, Madam Hooch showed them how to mount them properly and walked along the rows correcting grips. Envy was quite amused when the blond brat was told he was, and had been, mounting his broom wrong for years. He noticed that Harry Potter and his red-haired companion (Ron Weasley, he thought) seemed to find it funny too. He really didn't get this rivalry . . .

They were about to lift off, but Longbottom, nervous and jumpy, kicked off from the ground before Hooch finished counting down. About a minute later, the round-faced boy was lying on the ground and clutching his broken wrist. Several students seemed concerned, but Envy didn't care. If the Fullmetal pipsqueak could deal with losing limbs at the same age as Neville, then the boy should be able to deal with a broken wrist.

They were told to stay on the ground or "be expelled before they could say 'Quidditch' (what was that, anyway?) and Hooch rushed the boy off to the Hospital Wing.

Malfoy (that was his surname, as it turned out) burst out laughing. "Did you see his face, the great lump?"

Envy didn't really pay attention to the ensuing argument, but his attention was caught when Malfoy darted forward and held up a small ball that was about the size of a large marble. A Remembrall. Ironically, he remembered seeing one in the shop where he had bought his brass scales and other supplies.

Next thing anyone knew, Harry and Malfoy were mounting their brooms and flitting into the air, ignoring Granger's shouts of warning. Watching them, Envy shrugged and did the same, levitating a few yards. He found that the two children were making balance look easier than it really was, and he almost had to flatten himself to his broom to stay on. He watched the kids as they shouted each other—he couldn't quite hear what they were saying—then the blond threw the Remembrall and Potter raced after it. Envy thought the boy was going to crash, and so did the other students, judging by their shrieks. But he didn't. He pulled up just in time, clutching the small ball in one hand, and landed on his knees.

"HARRY POTTER!"

Envy recognized McGonagall's voice and he turned his head so he could look at her.

"NOVUS, GET DOWN FROM THERE! TEN POINTS FROM SLYTHERIN FOR FLYING WITHOUT AN INSTRUCTOR! Potter—"

Envy removed himself from the air with a sulky attitude, not bothering to listen to the Professor's tirade—it was directed at Potter, after all, not him. But for some reason, he almost wish it was he who was being yelled at.

'-'

Rather than tiring him, the marginally greater excitement of the day had made Envy restless, and pacing the common was not enough to fulfill his needs.

But, as the saying goes, rules are made to be broken, so he ventured out into the dark halls. He knew several routes well enough by now, so he wasn't worried about getting lost, but more about being caught, which was why he was out here—dodging Filch would be much more fun than sleeping.

Not long after midnight, he strolled along a corridor near the armory, humming to himself. Envy was still having a rather boring time—he had at first been able to see a bit more, but the portraits had demanded he put his wand out. And so, the most exciting thing that had happened so far was him tripping over some book someone had dropped. This boring time which came to an abrupt halt when, just as he was about to step into the next hall, four figures that looks suspiciously like Ron, Harry, Neville, and Hermione whizzed by without pausing. Grinning, as running probably meant action, he bolted after them and caught up within seconds.

"Hey! Who are ya running from?"

They paused for a moment, staring at him in surprise before they continued to sprint down the corridor. "As if . . . we . . . would tell . . . a Slytherin!" Weasley gasped out.

"Don't be . . . stupid!" Granger scolded, then turned her head slightly in Envy's direction. "We heard . . . Filch coming . . ." she panted.

"Ah! Great!" They ripped through a tapestry and down a small passageway, coming out somewhere near the Charms corridor. Envy frowned. "Is the action done already?" He looked at the panting kids, who were all doubled over trying to catch their breath or leaning against the wall.

"Yeah, I think we lost him," Harry said.

They started talking, something about Malfoy tricking Harry, then started down the corridor again. Envy stared after them for a moment before following in the hopes that there would be more excitement.

Ron turned to glare at him. "Why are you still fol—"

He was cut off when the doorknob next to them rattled and Peeves shot out of the classroom. He caught sight of them and started cackling, and the students began pleading for hims to quiet down—except for Envy. He sat back to enjoy the show. If Peeves was loud, Filch would come running, which was exactly what he wanted and just what the other students didn't.

"STUDENTS OUT OF BED!" Peeves hollered, "STUDENTS OUT OF BED DOWN THE CHARMS CORRIDOR!"

The first years ran for it, and Envy followed. They made it to the end of the corridor and started trying to open the door that stood there. They seemed to be failing miserably, and Envy was just about ready to step in and break it down when Granger shoved her way through.

"Oh, move over!" She grabbed Harry's wand and tapped the doorknob. " _Alohomora!"_

They piled inside, and after a moment of hesitation, Envy followed. He had just been hit with the realization that if he was caught, he would be brought before Snape, probably gain a detention, and lose some house points, and while those Gryffindors wouldn't mind (apparently, he was scum), he certainly didn't want to deal with that right now.

With the door shut, they all pressed their ears to it and listened. Filch had a rather funny conversation with Peeves before running off, and the students (excluding Envy) sighed in relief.

Except for Neville, who whimpered and tugged Harry around. Envy followed his gaze

Over them stood an enormous three-headed dog, drool dripping from its jaws. It was frozen, likely from surprise, and the students seemed petrified in terror. Envy, on the other hand, was muttering curses under his breath, wondering why the stupid, forgetful kid had noticed the monster before him.

He was scared, of course, he knew that the dog could easily crush him and he was starting to wonder if this was how people felt looking at him in his world when he transformed, but he wasn't quite as frightened as the other four.

Someone turned the doorknob, and they all fell out and back into the Charms corridor. The Gryffindors scrambled to their feet and started running, and Envy called, "See you later!" and started back to his own dormitory. The lack of sleep was starting to catch up to him, and he had gotten some of that excitement he had wanted. It was about time to head to bed.

'-'

Full Name: Envy Novus

Birthday: 7 May 1980

Wand: Hawthorn and Dragon Heartstring, ten and a quarter inches, flexible.

House: Slytherin.

Parents: Connor Novus (half-blood) and Lucy Novus (muggle).

* * *

 **Sorry this took longer than usual! I've discovered that at times writing this flows, and at others it doesn't. I also thought of something very sad while writing this chapter. What if Neville's broom had never stopped rising? The poor little first year would have frozen to death and run out of air. ;-;**

 **This chapter felt kind of rushed to me . . . :/ Oh well. I thought it would be fun if Envy were to be wandering and bump into the Golden Trio and Neville. XD**

 **I noticed that I forgot about the Hogwarts song last chapter. Whoops . . . but it's okay. I was pretty desperate to finish it at the time.**

 **Please review!**

 **-The Leaf on Italy's Head**


	5. Chapter 5

"I want to talk to Novus," Ron declared at the breakfast table next morning.

Harry blinked and turned to stare at him. "Why?"

"Well," the redhead said after chewing and swallowing a bit of sausage. "Who knows what he could have been doing last night? He should have been asleep like everyone else."

Harry nodded. "You're right. So, when are you going to talk to him?"

"Uh . . ."

'-'

Envy smirked at Malfoy, who was staring at Ron and Harry in shock. Of course, this form of entertainment couldn't last for long, so he soon finished his breakfast and stood to leave. As he passed the Gryffindor table, he paused to watch a long, thin parcel being delivered to Potter before continuing on his way.

He was followed by the two, although he didn't think it was intentional. When he had reached to top of the stairs (he was on his way to his first class, having nothing better to do) they were halfway up, but were blocked by Malfoy—the little git—and his goons. The ensuing argument caused Malfoy to be disappointed. Envy had barely been able to hear what Flitwick was saying, but he managed to make it out. From what he could tell, Harry had been sent a very expensive broomstick for some reason and when Professor Flitwick had arrived, Malfoy had tried to get Potter in trouble. It hadn't worked.

Smirking, he turned to walk away, but it seemed that Harry and Ron had noticed him, and they immediately sprinted up the stairs to catch him. He sighed. "What do you want?"

They took a moment to catch their breath, then straightened up, Ron first. "What were you doing wandering around in the middle of the night?" he demanded.

Envy smirked. "That's for me to know and for you to never find out!" With that, he skipped away, leaving the two Gryffindors with confused expressions.

'-'

The next few weeks passed in the same boring blur as the the previous weeks. Because of this, Envy decided that McGonagall had been lying when she told him that Hogwarts would be more exciting than the orphanage. Sure, it was fascinating, but there was a distinct lack of real action.

He woke on the thirty-first to a delicious smell of baking pumpkins. From what he had heard, there was a holiday today called 'Halloween'. He wasn't sure what they celebrated on this day, but apparently it wasn't big enough of a thing to cancel classes (although there would be a feast). It didn't matter much, however, because Flitwick declared that they would practicing the Hover Charm today, the one which he had used to make things fly on that first lesson. Envy was among the last to get it, but with a forceful " _Wingardium Leviosa!"_ he managed to lift his feather a couple feet.

He managed to push down the twinge of jealousy he felt upon seeing the other students chatting happily to one another and left the class.

'-'

The Great Hall was truly a sight to behold. Thousands of live bats swooped about, and enormous carved pumpkins could be seen everywhere with candles inside them. The feast was indeed a feast, with much more food than usual. Like at the opening banquet, the tableware was made of gold.

People had hardly started serving themselves, however, when Quirrell came sprinting into the hall, his turban askew, and started yelling about a troll being in the dungeons. He then fainted.

Envy frowned at this. Had Quirrell just decided to skip out on the feast and take a stroll in the dark, damp, ever-so- _scary_ dungeons?

His thoughts were, along with the uproar caused by Quirrell, broken into by Dumbledore's wand, which had just shot off a lot of purple sparks. "Prefects, lead your Houses back to the dormitories immediately."

Envy gaped up at the old man. The Slytherin dormitories where in the dungeons! What was that old fool thinking? Did he not care for them, or did he simply not know where their dormitories were? . . . Perhaps he believed that the troll wasn't really in the dungeons . . .

He was once again jolted out of his thoughts, this time by a prefect. "Come on, I know you're scared, we all are, but this is no time to stand around!"

Envy let out a growl as the prefect started dragging him after the rest of the Slytherins. He was soon let go, fortunately, at the edge of the group, and he managed to catch a bit of a conversation between Ron and Harry— _they were going after the troll._

Grinning, he slipped into a crowd of Hufflepuffs after them. He did not apologize to the few people he bumped into, and none of them seemed to realize that he was a Slytherin, too caught up in their own panic. Due to this lack of hindrance, he soon reached the two Gryffindors when they ducked behind a large statue of a griffin.

"Oh." Ron scowled. "It's only you. Come to take us back, have you?"

Envy laughed. "Take you back? No way! I just want to get in on the fun."

Harry and Ron exchanged a glance that quite plainly intoned, ' _He's insane'_ , before turning back to him. "You can come," Harry started, "but don't try to hitch a ride on the troll if we run into it or anything, got it? We don't want to get Hermione killed."

Envy gave a surprised blink. So, Granger was after the troll? Or had she gotten separated from the Gryffindors? "Fine, fine, I won't do anything terribly reckless."

Harry nodded approvingly. "Good, let's go."

They were about to start down the corridor when footsteps came clacking along it. They ducked back behind the griffin and watched as Snape hurried by them.

"He's heading for the third floor," Harry said.

Envy wasn't listening—he had instead chosen to cover his nose. "What is that smell? Gluttony's stomach?"

Harry and Ron gave him weird looks for this, but didn't comment, because just then low grunting had started up at the end of the passageway (to the left), along with the sound of enormous feet meeting stone.

There was the troll, dragging its club along the floor. It was easily twelve feet tall, and its head was very small in comparison to its body, which was very lumpy. It had flat, horned feet and gray skin. Envy thought it looked rather ugly.

It was also coming straight toward them. Harry and Ron ducked behind the statue yet again, dragging Envy back as well when he tried to jump out at the beast.

The troll stopped in a door and stood there for a moment, thinking, it seemed, before dragging its feet inside. Harry and Ron whispered something about the key in the lock, but Envy didn't listen—instead, he ran after the troll and into the room it had entered.

It turned out to be a bathroom, and, if the cowering Hermione was any indication, a _girls_ bathroom. Great. Shaking these thoughts off, he attempted to transform into his larger self. Then he remembered that he was unable to do that. Also, the troll had noticed him.

Crap.

He was jolted out of his thoughts when the club came swinging at him. Envy jumped out of the way just in time. The floor where he just stood had a new dent.

'-'

With the troll distracted by Envy, Ron and Harry came edging into the room and over to Hermione. The troll was currently busying itself with smashing the sinks in an effort to hit Novus, and it was failing miserably.

"Okay," Harry whispered to Ron. "You get Hermione out of here, I'll help Novus distract the troll."

Ron nodded and started sneaking around the troll to get to where Hermione was slumped against the wall and trembling.

Harry, meanwhile, raised his wand and gave a shout. "Oi, you! Um, troll!"

The monster turned its coconut-head to look at him, and Envy glared. "I was handling it just fine, you moron! Why did you interrupt?" he yelled.

"No, you weren't handling it! It was about to crush you!"

The argument seemed at first to be enough to sufficiently distract the troll, but it was not to be. The great lump soon got bored and spotted Ron and Hermione slowly making their way to the door. Envy was the first to notice. "Hey, look out!"

Hermione looked up and froze in terror, and Ron tried to pull her along. "Come on!" She wouldn't listen.

Ron muttered for a moment then raised his wand to point at the troll's club. " _Wingardium Leviosa!_ "

The troll looked up in utter confusion as its club was wrenched from its granite-gray hands. A moment later, the wooden weapon fell on the beast's head, and it collapsed, knocked out cold.

"Is it—dead?" Hermione asked.

"I don't think so." Harry approached and poked the troll's shoulder.

Envy gave the troll a vicious a kick to the head. "It's just knocked out."

The sound of shoes meeting flagstone echoed around the bathroom, and they all looked up to see teachers flooding in. The four of them soon found themselves on the receiving and of a lecture from McGonagall. Envy was rather bored of it—he'd endured much worse.

Granger gave an excuse for them ("Envy distracted it, and Harry and Ron came to help, blah blah blah"), but McGonagall wasn't entirely convinced.

"Mr. Novus," she said. "Why did a Slytherin such as yourself follow Miss Granger and Misters Potter and Weasley?"

Envy glanced at the trio then gave a shrug. "I wanted to fight the troll."

McGonagall gave a nod. "Very well, then. Miss Granger, five points will be taken from Gryffindor for this. You could have been hurt or worse. You may go now, students are finishing the feast at their houses."

Hermione nodded and hurried off.

'-'

Envy was mildly satisfied to walk away from the girls bathroom with four points in his pocket.

'-'

Full Name: Envy Novus

Birthday: 7 May 1980

Wand: Hawthorn and Dragon Heartstring, ten and a quarter inches, flexible.

House: Slytherin.

Parents: Connor Novus (half-blood) and Lucy Novus (muggle).

Skills: Good at Transfiguration and offensive spells.

* * *

 **This chapter absolutely hated me. I managed to finish it, fortunately, and I made it out of the Pit of Writer's Block alive. The ability to write this returned to me once Envy dashed in to fight the troll. Yay.**

 **I was inspired to write this after watching Envy's death over my brother's shoulder. Yup.**

 **All of McGonagall's lines in this chapter are taken from the book, but they aren't exact because I decided that since the circumstances are slightly different, so is Minerva's speech.**

 **There is a reason that Envy's metamorphmagus abilities are not listed at the end of his profile this chapter, so don't go talking to me about it. Also, I wrote this little one-shot for the same category this is in. Yay.**

 **This is my most popular fic. It may have less favorites than Happy Birthday, but it has more follows. :) Thank you, guys.**

 **I hope you're all having a lovely time. Please enjoy your day or night and don't anger Father and have your writing ability blocked by him.**

 **(I was thinking I'd change my pen name to Leaf of the Whomping Willow. Whaddaya think? I'm still not sure yet, I'm kinda attached to my current one . . .)**

 **If you find any mistakes, please point them out. I was too lazy to proofread this twice, which I usually do.**

 **Please review!**

 **-The Leaf on Italy's Head**


	6. Chapter 6

As the weather grew colder, excitement dusted the air. "Quidditch season" was coming up, and the wizards were crazy about the few sports they had. This meant that the opposing teams in the upcoming match were attacking each other's houses in the corridors, and this, although the Quidditch teams were being attacked the most, was the reason why Envy was standing in the middle of the Hospital Wing with his hair trailing on the floor behind him. He had been unable to change it back, so he was waiting for Pomphrey to finish with the two other students whose body parts she was correcting.

Recently the Gryffindors had begun teasing him for his hair. It was really annoying at first, but he was just starting to get used to it . . . when this happened.

Going to Madam Pomfrey had not been his first thought, of course. He had tried reverting his hair back to it's normal length, as was already mentioned, and that hadn't worked. He'd chopped it with scissors, but it had grown back again, and at some point he had resorted to poking it with his wand. He had eventually dragged himself over to the Hospital Wing, followed by much laughter.

When it was at last his turn, he found his hair back to normal in a matter of seconds. Pomfrey was, however, not satisfied with his health. "Do you feel quite all right?"

"I'm fine!" Envy snapped for the third time.

The matron frowned. "Go outside and get some fresh air, then, but don't stay out too long. You don't want to catch a cold."

Under her critical gaze, Envy dared not disobey, so he headed down to the Slytherin Dormitories for a scarf and cloak. Satisfied with his protection against the cold, he hurried outside.

It was _freezing_ , much colder that he expected—nothing he couldn't handle, of course, but still annoying. He shivered and started trudging across the frosty courtyard.

Very few people were out, owing to the temperature, but he did see Ron, Hermione, and Harry huddled together. As he watched, Professor Snape approached them, said something, and could soon be seen walking away with an object that looked like a book. Envy couldn't quite tell from his distance.

The trio started in the direction he was coming from, so by walking toward them he managed to be at the same place at the same time as them.

"What was that all about?"

Ron shot him a glare, but spoke at Hermione's prompting gaze. "Snape made up a rule about not being able to take books from the library and took away Quidditch Through the Ages."

Envy stared blankly. "What's Quidditch Through the Ages?"

Hermione answered this time. "It's a book about Quidditch and its history."

Envy gave a shrug. "I don't see what the big deal is. It's just a book."

"Just a book?" Ron looked incredulous. "Everything about Quidditch is in there!"

Harry cut him off before he could start rambling. "He's right, Ron. It's just a book. Come on, let's go."

Hermione nodded, holding up a jar with what appeared to be blue fire in it. Envy paled slightly. "The flames are dying, and I don't want to be caught with them if they're against the rules."

"Why don't you just go ahead and put the fire out right now?" Envy suggested, slight nervousness touching his voice.

"It's a good idea," Ron said grudgingly. "Hermione, put it out."

Hermione, however, just frowned then asked a rather blunt question. "Are you afraid of fire?"

"Of course not!" Envy retorted quickly. "Why would you think that?"

"Well . . ." Her frown deepened. "Nevermind." She put out the fire and stowed to jar away within the folds of her cloak. "Let's go."

Envy watched as the trio trudged from the courtyard and into the safety of the castle. Once he was quite sure they were out of earshot, he yelled a curse and kicked a few pebbles into the air.

"Oi!" came a voice from behind him. "What's got you so worked up?"

He turned and came face to face with the red-haired twin pranksters, Fred and George Weasley. "It's nothing you need to know," he snarled.

"All right, all right." The two boys, who were speaking in unison, held up their hands in an effort to placate him. "We were just asking. No need to get all touchy."

Envy huffed and turned to leave.

"But for some reason, you don't seem as bad as the other Slytherins."

He stopped and turned back around.

"So," started one twin.

"We propose a deal," continued the other.

"After all," they said together, identical cheshire grins spread across their faces. "Who would expect a snake to work with a pair of lions?"

Envy caught on quickly, and a grin to match the twins' stretched his mouth, although more malicious. "And what are the terms of this deal?"

"Well," one twin drawled. "If you were to, hypothetically of course, help us with some pranks, that would be excellent."

Envy nodded. "And what would our first hypothetical prank be?"

The other twin spoke this time. "If you were to hypothetically turn a few third year Slytherins' robes magenta and frame one by not changing theirs . . ."

"That would be great," the first twin finished.

'-'

When four of the Slytherin third years shuffled into the Great Hall late Saturday morning with pink robes _and_ hair, the previous chatter of the hall was silenced for a moment. Then laughter filled the quiet.

The Slytherins turned as pink as their robes and started swearing under their breaths. Meanwhile, Envy was attempting to hide his smirk and keep his expression looking as infuriated as the other Slytherins'. He was starting to get rusty in his acting.

The Weasley twins, matching grins spread across their faces, swept their gazes over the Slytherins, pausing for a moment on Envy before moving on.

The laughter soon died down to be replaced with the previous excited chatter. The two Quidditch teams that were playing today, Gryffindor and Slytherin, left the Great Hall, and the students followed soon after.

Envy finished off the last of his toast before going after those of his classmates who had already left. The weather was clear, which he supposed was good for the players, and there was a slight chill in the air—it was warmer than yesterday, at least.

He managed to get a seat fairly high up in the Slytherin stands. The rest of the pitch slowly filled with more students, and the level of noise grew louder and louder until all the students were cheering for whichever team they were siding with. Envy wasn't siding with anyone in particular, although he was leaning a bit toward his own house's team.

The individual teams soon took off—commentated by the boy with the tarantula—flitting about and passing the Quaffle. Envy found this game rather interesting—his favorite balls were the Bludgers, for obvious reasons. The beaters, who Envy thought were the ones who hit the Bludgers, were the Weasley twins for the Gryffindor team, and really, they and Harry were the only players he knew the names of.

Harry was the Seeker, who was supposed to catch a little ball that was hard to spot. The Snatch, or something like that.

The game was going normally, or at least Envy thought so—he'd never seen a Quidditch match before now. Anyway, the match was going quite normally until Envy noticed Harry's broomstick acting funny.

Harry had recently gone after the Snatch (Snitch?), only to be blocked by the Slytherin captain, Marcus Flint, and had started circling the pitch. That's when it started. He dodged a Bludger which had flown dangerously close to his head, and his broom had given a lurch. Then it gave another, and another—it was like the thing was trying to buck him off!

This went on for a while. Envy was almost bored of it when it suddenly stopped. With Harry safe, Envy began scanning the stands, trying to figure out why the air smelled of smoke. He saw, just a few boxes over, that Snape was stomping out the blue flames that were making his robes smoke. Blue flames . . . _that_ was familiar.

Quirrel, who was sitting behind Snape, was straightening his turban and looking a bit disgruntled. There was something off about him . . .

Eh, whatever.

The game ended with Harry almost swallowing the Snitch (which wasn't called the "Snatch" as he had found by the commentary). The Slytherins were very upset about this, so few of them took the time to wonder why Envy didn't seem to care. The only one who did think to puzzle over this was Draco Malfoy.

* * *

 **Finally, I got this out! I really didn't feel like writing the Quidditch chapter. I barely figured out how to start it. I just thought for several days, and then I realized a few jinxes would be flying, so why not make Envy's hair grow? Ah, but there has to be a point to him going to the Hospital Wing. I know! Pomfrey will tell him he looks pale and tell him to go outside, and there, his fear of fire will be revealed! Yeah . . . anyway, glad I finally got it done.**

 **Poor Envy has slight PTSD . . . *cough* Anyway, hope you enjoyed that. On a side note, I'm permanently changing my penname. I've decided I've changed it enough and I need to settle on something. So, my new pseudonym will be Quiet Leaf. I'll change it, say, five hours after I post this.**

 **Please review, any reviews you post will probably guilt-trip me into writing. I'm serious, the lack of reviews left me feeling uninspired last chapter. ("Oh, someone else will review, I'm sure, so I won't.")**

 **-The Leaf on Italy's Head**


	7. Chapter 7

The people of this world had another holiday Envy had never heard of. Christmas. It involved decorating the hall gloriously and giving gifts. Envy really didn't see the point of it, but then again, he didn't see the reasoning behind any other holidays either.

The day of the first snow, sometime in the middle of December, the Weasley twins were punished for charming several snowballs to fling themselves at the back of Quirrell's head. Envy had helped, but he managed to escape before McGonagall caught him and privately laughed at the twins' failure.

The Gryffindor trio seemed rather occupied with something. Every time Envy saw them, they were either running to the library, coming back from it, or they were already there. He would hear them whispering about someone called Nicolas Flamel, a name that sounded vaguely familiar, but he couldn't quite put his finger on it . . .

Snape had come around with a list of students that would be staying for Christmas Break. Envy had signed up without a second thought, but, as only two other Slytherins wouldn't be going home, it was going to be rather lonely. He didn't care about that, of course, definitely not. There was no reason whatsoever why he should feel alone.

This didn't change the fact that for some reason, he felt quite pleased when Granger approached him after Potions class one day.

He cast her a glare, not wanting to seem too friendly. "Is there something you want? Because if not, I need to get going."

Hermione gaped for a moment, surprised by Envy's attitude, before answering. "I didn't get the chance to say thank you after the whole incident with the troll."

Envy raised his eyebrows.

"S-so, um . . . thanks."

Envy sighed. "Fine you're welcome." He didn't stick around to see what she said next, instead choosing to hurry on to his next class, Charms. As usual, his time at Hogwarts wasn't any more exciting than days at a magic school could get. He was getting top marks in Transfiguration, but really, who cared about grades? . . . Well, he supposed all those other kids did, but he didn't.

He probably should, considering Father wasn't around to help him (or rather to be helped) in this world and he would need to eat when he grew too old for school.

'-'

Envy received a surprise on Christmas morning when he spotted the single wrapped gift at the foot of his bed. A little note was attached to the ribbon that was neatly tied around the whole thing.

 _Envy,_

 _Thanks again for helping to save me from the troll. Here's some compensation._

 _-Hermione_

He snorted in disbelief (why would she give something to him? They hardly knew each other!), but opened the parcel anyway.

It was just a book. A very thick book titled _Transfiguration for Beginners._ When he flipped open the cover, another note fell out.

 _McGonagall mentioned that you're good at Transfiguration. Hope you like it._

Maybe he would read it after breakfast.

All of the meals on Christmas Day were very large in proportion the the people who were staying at Hogwarts for break, which was something not far over a dozen including the teachers who had remained. Because there were so many turkeys, everyone had the opportunity to stuff their faces.

'-'

As the next Quidditch match—Gryffindor versus Hufflepuff—grew ever nearer, Harry Potter seemed to be growing anxious about something. Envy was quite sure that the black-haired boy hadn't been this nervous about the his first match, but he hadn't been paying much attention. So he decided to ask about it.

"Snape's refereeing the next match," Harry said gloomily.

"And?" Envy prompted, unimpressed.

"Haven't you seen him in Potions?" Bits food flew from Ron's mouth as he said this, spraying the table with crumbs.

Envy didn't pay it any mind—he was used to Gluttony's eating habits, Ron wasn't nearly as bad.

"He _hates_ Gryffindor! Always docking points, and giving them to you Slytherins, even when your potions are as bad as Neville's!"

Said forgetful boy, who was sitting a few seats away, looked a little hurt. Ron didn't notice, but Hermione did. "He didn't mean it, Neville, at least your potions are better than Crabbe and Goyle's."

Neville brightened a bit and went back to eating. Meanwhile, Ron had finished chewing and was informing Envy of why Snape refereeing a Quidditch match was a bad thing.

"He'll take every chance to give Hufflepuff penalties, and he might try to kill Harry again."

Envy found that last part very interesting, very interesting indeed. "Again?" he asked, eyebrows raised.

"Oh, um, well . . ." Ron stumbled over the words for a moment and Hermione stepped in.

"Remember how Harry's broom was bucking at the last Quidditch game?" Envy nodded. "Well, Snape was jinxing it! He was staring at Harry without blinking and muttering something. I set fire to the hem of his robes to distract him."

Envy frowned, remembering the disgruntled look Quirrell's face held at the match and his skipping out on the feast. "I dunno . . . Snape doesn't seem like the kind of guy who would try to kill little kids. Even if they're Gryffindors," he added upon seeing the incredulous expression on Ron's face.

"You could be right," Hermione said slowly. "But we'll have to wait and see."

'-'

Envy chose to sit as close as he could to Ron and Hermione without it seeming strange. Despite their worries, however, there was nothing out of the ordinary about the match other than the fact that Snape did indeed award several penalties to Hufflepuff. Ron got into a fight with Draco Malfoy, something which Envy found quite amusing, and Neville tried to back him up, but he ended up being knocked out by Crabbe or Goyle—Envy couldn't be bothered to remember which one was which.

In the end, Gryffindor won the match. Envy wasn't sure if he should be happy about this or not. On the one hand, Gryffindor was a rival house and he should be unhappy about the easy win. On the other, the Weasley twins were on the Gryffindor Quidditch team (he definitely didn't care about the trio, this was completely unrelated) and they needed to keep their alliance intact.

He decide to remain neutral.

'-'

As exams made their slow approach, the teachers began piling homework in front of their students. Envy noticed that the fifth years and up had more than anyone else.

Well, he wasn't looking forward to those years as much anymore.

At the moment, Envy was in the library. He had barely made any effort to do some studying before he started wandering about the Transfiguration shelves—he had already finished the book Hermione had given him—and pulling off volumes at random.

He never dreamed he would ever become so bookish.

The former Homunculus dragged his stuff to a table—which he noticed absently was a not far from the one where the Gryffindor trio were sitting—and started reading _Tea Cups to Rats._ Two chapters in, he felt a slight tremor in the floor and looked up to see the gamekeeper whispering to the trio. What was his name again? Haggar? Haggard? Hagrid? Yes, that was it, Hagrid. Anway, Hagrid was looking quite shifty about something and hiding a book behind his back. The trio was looking curious, but Hagrid didn't seem to be telling them what they wanted to know. They didn't look like they were pushing very hard either.

Heh, if they didn't know how to get information out of people, then he wasn't telling them.

'-'

After that, everything seemed normal. Then the trio started looking harried. They whispered to each other a little more frequently, and whenever one got too loud they would be silenced with a noisy "SHH" from Hermione.

Envy at last decided to confront them when he found out Ron was stuck in the Hospital Wing.

He snuck up behind the trio (or rather, the two that were there) after Potions class, getting a strange sense of déjà vu as he did so. "You guys have seemed kind of suspicious lately. What's that all about?"

They jumped and turned to face him.

"Oh, Envy!" Hermione gave a smile that Envy got the impression was fake. "We didn't see you there. Did you like the book?"

He blinked. "Wha—oh, yeah." He shifted uncomfortably. "Don't try to change the subject, what have you been whispering about?"

"Um . . ." Hermione glanced around. "You're not going to blab to Malfoy, are you?"

"You mean the blond haired brat?" Envy snorted. "We might share a dorm, but that doesn't mean I'm one of his loyal minions."

After being given an affirmative glance by Hermione, Harry launched into an explanation about Hagrid and a baby dragon called Norbert. By the end of it, Envy's eyebrows had disappeared behind his headband.

"Well, I would love to see that dragon."

'-'

Draco wondered why Novus kept talking to those Gryffindors.

'-'

Full Name: Envy Novus

Birthday: 7 May 1980

Wand: Hawthorn and Dragon Heartstring, ten and a quarter inches, flexible.

House: Slytherin.

Parents: Connor Novus (half-blood) and Lucy Novus (muggle).

Skills: Good at Transfiguration and offensive spells.

* * *

 **Okay, so, this wasn't made clear last chapter, but Malfoy's started to think that Envy might be a muggle born/muggle lover/possible blood traitor, and if you're in Slytherin, that's not a good thing. Also, I forgot to mention that I was going to stop putting up Envy's profile for a while. But I think I'll start putting it up again, really, for your convenience. The previous chapter has been edited to contained Envy's profile.**

 **I've changed my review policy. I now answer reviews if I feel like it.**

 **Please review! You know you want to! *holds up FMA character plushies labeled "REWARDS"***

 **-Quiet Leaf**


	8. Chapter 8

"Aah! You little . . ." Envy barely managed to escape a dragon bite, which was fortunate, seeing as Ron was in the hospital because this exact hatchling had bitten him.

He dropped to the floor and a stream of flames made its way over his head. Hagrid just chuckled and continued to peel his potato while Envy frantically patted out the the smoldering coats behind him.

Why had he signed up for this? No, more specifically, why had he ever wanted to see the dragon? He didn't have his regenerative powers anymore, if he got burned, he would stay burned until he was healed. Did dragons burns take longer to heal than normal ones?

In his distraction, he nearly got burned again. He was sick of this already, and he'd been here for half an hour. "Hagrid, I'm really tired," Envy started, barely noticeable sarcasm lacing his tone. "So I have to be getting to bed. Good night!" He plastered a fake smile on his face, waved, and left through the door before Hagrid could get in a word.

Once outside the cabin, he hid out of sight of the window and slowly shifted his appearance—he was not going to be given detention for wandering the halls at night.

He transformed into a classmate, Theodore Nott, removed his name tag ***** , and started back up to the castle with an air of sneakiness (it was a little late to be wandering the grounds).

Sure enough, he had barely entered the castle when Mrs. Norris came running up, hissing her disapproval.

Envy growled in annoyance. "Get away, you stupid cat!" He gave the despicable creature a kick and it flew a few feet down the hall, whereupon it leapt to its paws and sprinted away, presumably to fetch Filch, who would then give Theodore Nott a detention.

The caretaker came shuffling over before Envy could get away, but he didn't care much—the look on Nott's face when he found out he had a detention that he didn't know about would be priceless, and besides, he didn't like fighting.

The trip was short and to the point. Snape looked to be in a foul mood when Filch dragged him in, but he covered it quite well.

"Nott," he hissed. "What are you doing up at this hour?"

Envy put on a facade of slight fear. "Um, well, I was—"

"Nevermind!" Snape snapped. "Fifteen points from Slytherin and detention tomorrow evening. I will send you details with the morning post."

Ha, he couldn't wait to see Theodore's face when he found out he had a full evening tomorrow. But, looking past that to _why_ Nott had a detention . . . he would have to give Harry and Hermione a little chewing out later.

'-'

"You should have warned me about how vicious it is," Envy snapped at breakfast the next morning.

The two Gryffindors had the decency to look guilty.

"We just, um . . ." Harry glanced around. "We just wanted a small break from _it_. Sorry." He looked truly apologetic.

Envy sighed and rubbed the back of his head. "Whatever. I probably would have gone even if you _had_ told me."

Now they looked relieved.

"Well, we're getting rid of it tomorrow," Hermione put in conversationally.

Envy raised his eyebrows. "Getting rid of it how?"

"Ron's brother, Charlie, is sending a few friends to pick it up at midnight on the Astronomy tower. They're dragon tamers."

"Don't you think the weekend is a bit of an obvious time for students to try something?"

Hermione opened her mouth, then closed it again. "W-well, we already have it scheduled and everything, so—"

"We can't back out now," Harry finished for her.

Envy yawned. "Good for you, because I am not involving myself with it anymore." He turned around after snatching up a piece of toast and wandered to his first lesson early. When he reached the doors, however, he turned back in time to see the horrified and bewildered expression on Theodore Nott's face as he stared at the detention slip he had just received by owl.

'-'

After thinking it through, Draco wasn't quite so sure Envy belonged with Slytherin.

'-'

On Sunday morning, Envy woke sometime between 'bright and early' and 'oh no, I'm going to be late for class!' (although there were no classes that day), which is to say, a bit earlier than everyone else (taking into consideration the day of the week). He took his time getting dressed and such, so by the time he made it into the common room, his dorm mates had already gotten out of bed, and several students were up and milling about.

He had made it only halfway across the common room before Malfoy's drawling voice filtered through the crowd. "Hey, Novus, it must be pretty nasty for you—hanging around with us Slytherins, I mean."

The students fell silent. Draco made his way to the center of the room, and a space was cleared for him so that he could stand a couple yards away from his quarry.

Envy let his confusion show only for a moment before he pasted a bright smile over it. "And what do you mean by that?"

"Well." The blond folded his arms. "You've been hanging around with those Gryffindors quite a bit, haven't you?"

"So what?" Envy was starting to feel a little uneasy.

"You don't seem to mind that Granger is a Mudblood, either," Malfoy continued.

Since he had no idea what a "Mudblood" was, Envy chose not to answer that and instead left the common room, Malfoy's last words following him out the door.

"What's your blood status, Novus?" he said mockingly. "Or are you a Muggle lover?"

'-'

He received several stares and whispers at breakfast and while traversing the halls, so Envy decided it would be wise to stay outside until lunch, despite the need to study for the impending exams.

There were also a lot of glares being sent Harry's way by his housemates, and many cheers from Envy's own house, due to the the points Gryffindor had lost. He snorted when he saw the Gryffindor hourglass—he had told them it was a bad idea to go out on Saturday, but _no_ , they just had to go ahead with their plan anyway. Stupid kids . . .

When the midday meal at last arrived, Envy chose to sit somewhere other than the Slytherin table. So it was quite a surprise to the Gryffindor trio (Ron was finally out of the Hospital Wing) when he claimed a seat right next to them.

Hermione let out a startled, "Oh!", Harry glanced up from his plate dejectedly, and Ron glared, which, though disappointing, was explained when he spoke.

"Come to make fun of Harry too, have you?"

Envy helped himself to a bacon sandwich. "Nope. But—" he turned to Harry and Hermione, "—things would have gone better if you had listened to me."

Ron looked from the Slytherin to his two friends. "What is he talking about?"

Envy answered before Hermione got the chance to open her mouth. "I told them it would probably be a good idea not to sneak out over the weekend—that's when the professors expect students to try something."

"What are you doing here, anyway?" Hermione asked quickly. "I mean, you wouldn't come over here just to say 'I told you so' . . . actually, I think you would."

Envy laughed, loud enough that a few people looked in his direction, but seeing who he was sitting with, they soon went back to their own conversations. "Well, in case you haven't noticed, I'm a bit of an outcast in my own house."

On cue, the trio turned to look at the Slytherin table (Harry had temporarily dropped out of his funk). A few students were whispering to each other and glancing at Envy suspiciously.

"See?"

They turned back to the boy himself.

"Malfoy started spouting something about me hanging around Gryffindors, called you—" he jabbed a thumb at Hermione, "—a mugblood, or something like that, then asked me about my blood status and whether I'm a muggle lover."

Ron gaped in outrage, and for a second Envy thought it might be for him. "He called Hermione a-a _Mudblood?"_

Envy only nodded, since his mouth was too full of sandwich for him to speak.

Hermione looked very confused. "What's—?"

"It's a horrible insult," Ron fumed. "A lot of pure-bloods think they're better than Muggle-borns, and they call them that. It's really foul, worst thing you can think call someone."

Envy swallowed his mouthful of sandwich. "So _that's_ what it means!"

Ron dropped his fork in shock. "You didn't know? But you're in Slytherin!"

Envy raised his eyebrows. "Well, I was raised in anoth—um, an orphanage, so I don't really know that much about this place."

"Oh . . ." Hermione looked down.

"Sorry about your parents," Harry mumbled. "Mine are dead . . . but you probably knew that already."

"Why the hell would I know something like that?"

The jaws of the members of the trio dropped, and they stared.

Envy stared back. "What?"

The ensuing explanation was interesting, because really, it wasn't every day that a powerful sorcerer was defeated by a toddler—Envy would be pretty shocked if, say, a baby Edward Elric destroyed Father. But he was a bit skeptical about the idea of a one-year-old defeating a well-trained adult, and also didn't know the full extent of said adult's power. "So, who is this . . . 'all the more' person?"

There was a little more gaping, although Harry seemed a little less surprised, and another explanation.

It turned out the Gryffindors didn't really know that much about their Dark Lord—just that he was evil and killed a lot of people.

Envy stuffed the last of his sandwich into his mouth before answering them. "Okay, good for you. You're famous for something, you have good friends and go to a good school. Happy ending."

"Being famous is really annoying," Harry mumbled, but it was barely hear over Hermione's, "Actually, we have a problem. Somebody might be after the—"

Ron interrupted with a "SHH!", and Hermione fell silent. Unfortunately for them, they had Envy's interest peaked.

"Someone might be after what?"

"Erm, well . . ." Ron fumbled for a few moments for something to say before finishing whatever sentence he was starting with, "We can't trust you just because everyone in Slytherin doesn't like you, m-maybe you're just lying and they're really _afraid_ of you, for-for being worse than You-Know-Who, or something."

It was a terrible excuse, and Envy knew that Ron could tell, but he relented. "You would be pretty stupid to trust me right away. You don't even know me that well."

Ron nodded. "Exactly."

"And since I'm not trustworthy, I might as well get going." He stood up and yawned, then turned and started toward the doors to the Great Hall.

"Wait!" Hermione called.

"It's fine," Envy said, looking at her over his shoulder. "I need to study for the exams, anyway."

The doors soon closed behind him.

'-'

Full Name: Envy Novus

Birthday: 7 May 1980

Wand: Hawthorn and Dragon Heartstring, ten and a quarter inches, flexible.

House: Slytherin.

Parents: Connor Novus (half-blood) and Lucy Novus (muggle).

Skills: Good at Transfiguration and offensive spells.

* * *

 ***It's stated in the Hogwarts school list that all uniforms must carry name tags. I've also discovered that Muggle is capitalised, and pure-blood and Muggle-born have hyphens. Ugh, this is driving me up the wall. :P**

 **I stopped writing just so I could research British sandwiches and choose one for Envy. XD It didn't take long, fortunately.**

 **Next chapter, or the one after that, shall be the end of first year. Hooray! Personally, I'm very excited to get to book seven, but that will come at a much later date.**

 **Anyway, sorry this took almost twenty days . . . the usual, of course, being lazy the first couple of days, getting writer's block after the first few paragraphs, struggling to write for a week or two and getting very little onto the page, then suddenly being given a gift in the form of flowing words and writing until midnight, when the chapter is finally finished. I'm starting to notice a pattern . . . of course, this time I got a little sick (still have a bit of a stuffy nose and a cough), so it's kind of different.**

 **AND YOU GUYS. 83 FOLLOWS. 50 FAVORITES. AND 35 REVIEWS. *falls over* This is by far my most popular story. I also think it's better than all the others. XD I mean, it has more favorites than Happy Birthday, which isn't saying much when you look at more popular stories, but still . . . thanks. C:**

 **Please leave a review! If you don't feel like it, I understand. Everyone does, actually . . .**

 **-Quiet Leaf**


	9. Chapter 9

Envy had stopped eating meals at the Slytherin table. He no longer sat with his house during Potions, but instead opted to sit with the Gryffindor trio. At his other classes and during the night when he had to return to his dormitory, he stayed away from his housemates. The Hufflepuffs and Ravenclaws also glared at him at first, but eventually got used to him.

He found himself the subject of many jinxes over the next few days, but was happy to work with Fred and George to get back at the ones who cast them. He was also informed by the trio, who he was quickly becoming friends with, that Harry had encountered something that could have been Voldemort in the Forbidden Forest during his and Hermione's detention. Envy sort of wished he could have gone after that. Heh, and he thought he was done with being envious.

The spells directed at him lessened during the exams—Envy figured everyone was too hot and tired to try anything. Despite this, he did not completely drop his guard while out in the (scorching) sun with the Gryffindor trio after exams had finished.

"I wish I knew what this _means_!" Harry burst out.

Envy, not expecting the sudden shout, started, before relaxing again. "What?"

"My scar! It keeps hurting!" He rubbed his forehead. "It's happened before, but never as often as this."

"Go to Madam Pomfrey," Hermione suggested.

"I'm not ill. I think it's a warning . . . it means danger's coming . . ."

Envy sighed and flopped onto the grass. "Lighten up. It's probably nothing."

"Envy's right," Ron agreed. "I mean, with Dumbledore around, Snape wouldn't dare go after the Stone! We never got proof that Snape knows how to get past Fluffy anyway. He's already had his leg almost ripped off, he's not going back in a hurry. Besides, Neville would play Quidditch for England before Hagrid let Dumbledore down."

Envy huffed. "What's up with this Stone business anyway? I think you should trust me enough to tell me by now." It was true, they never let him in on their conversations about the Philosopher's Stone, and, due to his former species, the way he died, and many other things, he was highly interested in this topic. "If I was going to go off reporting to Snape that you suspected him of something, I would have done it already." Though perhaps he would not have told him, just so he could watch the chaos unfold.

Harry glanced between his two friends, who both had thoughtful expressions, then said, "I think we should tell him."

"Me too," Hermione agreed.

They gave Ron a prompting gaze, and he caved in with a sigh. "Yeah."

Their explanation began with Hermione spouting off what was undoubtedly a passage from a library book (" _The ancient study of alchemy is concerned with making the Philosopher's Stone, a legendary substance with astonishing powers . . .")_ and claiming there to be a Philosopher's Stone _in the castle_. From this part of the explanation, it was painfully obvious that either the people of this world had not discovered the full extent of alchemy, or their version of it was very different. Seeing as only the wizards seemed to practice it (he'd asked about it at the orphanage, and the caretaker he'd questioned had given him a baffled stare), he thought the latter option to be more likely than the former.

The next part of the explanation was only started—Envy interrupted Harry to tell him that he had already pieced together that Snape was after the Stone because of all the conversations they'd had that had left before him clueless. Harry looked embarrassed for not having realized this sooner, made sure that Envy knew Snape was getting the Stone for Voldemort, then clarified what Quirrell had to do with everything (that explained why they'd been so friendly with him . . .).

Envy whistled. "Quite the plot going on here." Though not even close to the size of the one set up by Father.

Harry sighed and rubbed his forehead again. There were a few minutes of silence, then the Boy Who Lived quite suddenly jumped to his feet. "I just thought of something." Harry had gone very pale. "We need to go see Hagrid, right now."

Envy groaned, but followed Harry's example as he turned and started hurrying in the direction of Hagrid's humble abode (he did _not_ want to end up as lazy as Sloth).

Hermione, who was following with Ron, was the one to stage the question of why they were going to see there large friend.

They scrambled up the grassy slope as Harry explained how odd it was that there had just happened to be a person wandering around with a dragon egg when Hagrid so wanted one ("What? You guys never told me about this!" said Envy). "Why didn't I see it before?"

Envy was pretty sure everyone in their little quad was confused when he said that, and it was partly confirmed when Ron asked about it.

"What are you talking about?"

Unfortunately for the two boys, he didn't answer.

They stopped, out of breath, at the edge of the Forbidden Forest, in front of Hagrid, who was shelling peas into a large bowl.

He smiled. "Hullo. Finished yer exams? Got time fer a drink?" Hagrid had been suspicious of Envy at first, but warmed up to him after finding out that he wasn't so bad.

"Yes," and "Yes, please," were the Slytherin and Ron's respective answers, but Harry cut them off and started interrogating Hagrid. It wasn't much of an interrogation, really, as Harry only asked what the stranger he was playing cards with looked like when he won Norbert.

"Dunno, he wouldn' take his cloak off."

Now that he was informed of the situation and knew as much as the rest of the "quad", Envy was able to piece everything together with the three Gryffindors. He didn't look quite as stunned as they did.

Harry sank down next to the bowl of peas. "What did you talk to him about, Hagrid? Did you mention Hogwarts at all?"

Hagrid then proceeded to babble in more detail about how he got Fluffy, and Harry asked if the cloaked stranger had been interested in the dog. Envy tuned most of it out until a piece of useful information came up.

"—Fluffy's a piece o' cake if yeh know how to calm him down, jus' play him a bit o' music an' he'll go straight off ter sleep—" Hagrid suddenly looked horrified and started spluttering about how he shouldn't have told them that and that they should forget about it, but he was too late—the quad had already taken off toward the castle.

Getting someone to believe that Snape was after the Stone turned out to be quite a hassle. In fact, it didn't even work—McGonagall completely rejected the idea (Dumbledore was unavailable at the time), and they didn't trust anyone else enough to inform them.

Thus, Harry told Hermione to wait outside the staff room so she could follow Snape, and in the meantime the three males of the group would wait around the door to the third floor corridor.

Much to their dismay, however, McGonagall walked by moment after they arrived and sent them back to their respective common rooms after a scalding (but short) rant, which involved major house point deduction (twenty-five points from Slytherin and fifty from Gryffindor).

Envy followed Ron and Harry back to their common room and waited outside with them—they'd decided that, even if he was their friend, he was a Slytherin, and they couldn't let him in.

This suited the him just fine.

Barely three minutes later, Hermione came panting up to them. "I'm sorry!" were her first words. They were followed by an explanation of why she was here, instead of with Snape.

"Well, that's it then, isn't it?" Harry had gone pale again, and his eyes were glittering.

The other three first years stared at him.

"I'm going out there tonight and I'm going to try and get to the Stone first."

Ron and Hermione protested against this statement quite vehemently ("You're mad!"), but Envy agreed with Harry—if this Dark Lord was as evil as he was made out to be (like he was one to talk), he didn't want him to get the Philosopher's Stone and ruin the new life he had with his . . . his friends. "Sounds great to me."

The two Gryffindor's who were in disagreement with Harry and Envy stared at the former as if he too was insane, but the Boy Who Lived smiled. "Thanks, Envy."

He nodded uncomfortably, not used to being thanked. "Yeah, whatever."

Harry proceeded to loudly inform his two Gryffindor friends of why it was necessary that he go after the Stone before Snape could get to it. His point was sound, and the short argument was won.

"I'll use the invisibility cloak. It's just lucky I got it back."

"Invisibility cloak?"

The three stared at Envy again.

"What?"

'-'

Late that night, long after dinner had ended, Envy hid as best he could in the shadows and crept in the direction of the third floor corridor. Snape walked by in the opposite direction, but he paid the him no mind—if the professor wasn't going after the Stone tonight, it was all the better for the quad.

Harry had objected against his friends coming along, but that was an argument that he had lost.

He soon arrived at his destination. The Gryffindors were nowhere to be seen—then again, they were under an invisibility cloak.

"Psst! Envy!"

Envy took a moment to locate the source of the noise.

"Here!" The cloak slipped off Ron, Hermione, and Harry a few feet away.

"How long have you been here?" Envy whispered.

"We just arrived." Harry strode forward. "Well, there you are. Snape's already gotten past Fluffy."

"Huh?" Envy took a closer look at the door, and noticed for the first time that it was ajar. Strange . . . hadn't he just walked by the man . . . ? Huh. Well, he probably had some sort of mysterious shortcut, or maybe someone had forgotten to close the door after feeding Fluffly. "Ahh. We'd better get going." He pushed past Harry and shoved the door open before anyone could protest, and had to jump back in order to keep his head on his shoulders.

The dog's middle head had half its muzzle sticking out of the doorway, and it was sniffing the air and growling.

Envy glanced at the Gryffindors. "Someone brought a musical instrument, right? Because I don't want to hear you guys sing."

Harry nodded and pulled a carved wooden flute, then started playing some notes. Despite the seemingly random order of pitches, the dog slowly relaxed and was soon breathing at a steady pace. There was a great _thump_ as the rest of monster's body fell to the floor.

Ron let out a quiet sigh of relief. "Great, it's asleep. But . . ." He gestured at the full doorway. "How are we getting through?"

Hermione lifted her wand and leveled it at the sleeping dog. She opened her mouth to say a spell, then paused. The sound of Harry's flute filled the silence. "Ah . . . I read the the Levitation Charm works on small animals and children, but I don't think it would work on Fluffy . . ."

Envy groaned and slapped his forehead. "I'm not good enough at Transfiguration to change it into something smaller."

Left with no other choice, the first years, excluding Harry, started the process of pushing the dog's snout back through the door. The beast's neck had stretched out just enough that they were able to push its head back in a way that would leave room to squeeze by.

There was a moment when Harry stumbled as he got past the middle head, and the music stopped for a second. It frightened the other members of the quad, and even scared Envy a bit—he was starting to realize how powerless he was. But Harry didn't fall, and the "music" continued.

The trapdoor could be found a couple yards behind the dog's backside and underneath its tail. Envy shoved the offending body part aside and Ron pulled open the trapdoor. All that could be seen below was blackness.

Envy grinned. "Well, who's going first?"

Harry waved his hand wildly to catch their attention, then pointed at himself.

"You want to go first?" Ron asked. "Are you sure? We don't know how deep this thing goes. Give the flute to Hermione so she can keep him asleep."

Harry nodded and passed the flute off to Hermione. Then came a speech about not following if something happened to him and blah blah blah, which Envy had expected. And then, Harry jumped.

It was about ten seconds before there was a faint, muffled thump. Harry's call that it was okay was distant, but heard, and Ron and Envy both let out sighs of relief. The latter was the first to muster up the courage to jump after their black-haired friend.

The air was cold and damp, and when Envy landed it took him a moment to realize that he was perched on a mess of a plant.

There was another thump a few seconds later, right next to him, and a short discussion was held between the three of them about why the plant was there, although Envy realized that now was not the time for wondering about trivial things like that.

Ron called for Hermione to come down. The flute immediately stopped, and there was a ferocious bark from the dog, but the female of their group had already jumped.

Another short conversation ensued—it was hardly a conversation, really. Hermione voiced her thoughts on how far under the school they must be, and Ron commented on how lucky it was that the plant was there.

It was only when Hermione uttered a shriek and some frantic words, leapt away, and started fretting that they noticed the vines that had wrapped around their limbs.

Rather than joining in with the other three's freak-out session, Envy chose to pay full attention to getting rid of this plant. He didn't get to try anything more than morphing his fingernails to grow long and sharp before Hermione's trademark bluebell flames swooped in for the rescue and the plant shriveled and curled in on itself, desperate to get away from the burning light.

Envy was just as quick as the plant to get away from the fire, and he almost got wrapped up again before he realized that the fire wasn't aimed at him. "Hey, watch the flames!"

Hermione flushed pink and muttered a quiet apology while Envy hurried to join she and the others at the wall, also shrinking his fingernails behind his back.

They continued down a stone passageway, and as they approached the next room there was a strange sound, like the fluttering of hundreds of wings. It turned out that was exactly what it was.

What seemed like a thousand glittering birds flew around the room in random patterns. It took Envy a moment to realize that the birds were, in fact, keys, of all different colors and sizes with wings attached to them.

The other three didn't seem to notice this, and Envy decided to be kind enough to point it out.

"He's right!" Hermione exclaimed. "One of those keys must go to that door." She indicated the exit set in the wall opposite them.

They hastened across the room (fortunately, the keys refrained from attacking them) and tried every manner of unlocking charm they knew on it, but even after Envy blasted it with a few hexes and tried to kick the door down, it wouldn't budge

They resorted to using some brooms which just _happened_ to be lying around, and Harry managed to capture the right key (Ron had guessed what they were after based on the lock).

The next room contained only a chessboard. A _giant_ chessboard. Envy wasn't much good in the way of strategy games, and neither were Harry and Hermione, so Ron took charge.

Each of them were sent to different parts of the board, Hermione a rook, Harry a bishop, and Envy got to be the other bishop. Their red-haired friend took the place of a knight and directed them from square to square, taking almost as many white pieces as the enemy did black.

The game ended when Ron sacrificed himself so that Harry could take the king. Envy refused to admit being scared for the Weasley (pieces were taken out in this game the same as with normal sized wizard chess) and only checked for a pulse.

They easily passed through the next room, as the troll inside had already been knocked out, and entered a small chamber. Purple flames sprang up in the doorway behind them, from which Envy jumped away, and black fire came to life in the doorway leading onward.

The only things in the room were a table, several bottles placed in a line (on the table), and a rolled up bit of parchment (also on the table).

Hermione was quick to seize the paper, and Harry and Envy read it over her shoulder. He couldn't make heads or tails of the riddle, and judging by his expression, neither could Harry.

Hermione, however, was ecstatic, and started babbling on about wizards' stance toward logic. She paced back and forth along the table, pointing at the bottles and muttering before she clapped her hands. "Got it. The smallest bottle will get us through the black fire—toward the Stone."

As the smallest bottle didn't hold much potion, it was decided that Harry would go through the black flames, while Envy and Hermione would go back through the purple ones.

Hermione went first, shuddering as she swallowed a mouthful of the stuff in the round bottle. Apparently, it was like ice. Envy was able to confirm this when he swallowed some.

As with the potion, Envy's bushy-haired friend went through the flames first. But Envy stopped half a foot away and simply stared at the fire.

"Envy?" came Harry's unsure voice. "Are, uh, are you okay?"

The Slytherin took a couple steps back from the doorway, his eyes closed as he tried not to remember _that day_ , the day he died.

But fire was swirling all around him, white hot flames, his flesh smoldering as Mustang's voice shouted at him—

"Envy!"

He snapped out of it, blinking in surprise as he realized that he wasn't burning, and that Harry was gazing at him with concern.

Envy shook his head and shuddered. "You know what? I think I'll stay right here in this room. You go on, and I'll wait here for you to come back or for Dumbledore to come help."

Harry gave him a hard look as if trying to figure out what was bothering him. ". . . All right." He couldn't seem to think of anything else to say, so he simply downed the contents of his bottle and, with only a moment's hesitation, stepped through the fire.

'-'

Envy didn't hear much of what happened in the room beyond the black fire.

"LIAR!"

"NEVER!"

"SEIZE HIM!" Another, "SEIZE HIM!"

"AAARGH!"

Dumbledore swept in and let out a barely noticeable sigh of relief at the sight of the former homunculus.

"KILL HIM! KILL HIM!"

The heads of both professor and student snapped to the flames still licking the door frame. The headmaster drew his wand, and with a flick of it the fire disappeared, and at the same time the two burst through the door. Envy heard two voices calling Harry's name, and was shocked to realize that one of those voices was his.

* * *

 **Thanks so much to Suuki-Aldrea for being this story's one hundredth follower! Thanks to all of you, really—I'm so happy about how far this fic has come. I don't expect it to get far past two hundred followers at this point, but that's fine by me! One hundred and nine alerts is already quite a bit. :D One particular guest reviewed several times informing me of how happy they are with how I made Envy normal and how much they love the story. THANK YOU. Your reviews made my day. :)**

 **Also, as you should be able to see, the purpose of Malfoy's suspicion was to draw Envy closer to the trio. Finally. But if Envy's with the trio, we have to follow the story line a bit more closely. I'm unhappy with the amount of lines quoted directly from the book in this chapter, although there's not that many . . . Anyway, I'm thinking I should focus a little more on Envy's new personal life. That is what the story's supposed to be about, isn't it? Another also, I forgot about Envy's owl. ;-; The poor thing has been neglected.**

 **Next chapter is the end of first year! Hooray! :D By the way, this chapter is twice as long as my average ones. I'm so proud of myself.**

 **Please review! You'll get a free owl if you do. :D**

 **-Quiet Leaf**


	10. Chapter 10

When Envy walked into breakfast the next morning with Ron and Hermione, everyone near the doors fell silent. The rest of the students were quick to notice what they were all staring at, and also stopped talking. Then the whispers rose, and a flood of questions rushed toward the three of them.

"What happened down there?"

"Is Harry okay?"

"Is it true that the Philosopher's Stone was under the school?"

"Are—"

"Ahem."

Everyone froze and looked toward the front table, where McGonagall was gazing down in disapproval.

"This is breakfast, not a press conference."

There was a general feeling of embarrassment and the students returned to their meals, glancing at the subjects of their interest every once in awhile.

When the trio sat down at the Gryffindor table, a wave of people craned their necks to see them, but McGonagall sent them back to their food with a sharp glare.

They ate mostly in silence, the only exceptions being when they asked for someone to pass the ketchup, or some such thing, and when they agreed that it was time to leave.

As soon as breakfast ended and the students had exited the Great Hall, the questions started again. They were almost exactly the same as before.

Envy proudly explained what had happened in explicit detail, leaving nothing out and relishing in the attention. Ron looked a little crestfallen, as he wasn't the one regaling the other students with their adventure, but out of the three of them, Envy had made it farthest through the chamber and therefore knew more then the entire quad excluding Harry. Hermione shared what she had done after she had gone back through the flames—speaking of which, she had been quite worried when Envy didn't follow her and was relieved when he arrived at the Hospital Wing unharmed.

After that, the questions were few, which was good as it gave them peace. They mostly lay around, anxiously waiting for Harry to wake up. By the second day after the whole Stone adventure, their friend's bedside table was overflowing with get well cards and magic sweets. Ron had already eaten several of Harry's Chocolate Frogs, and was disappointed each time when he didn't get an Agrippa card.

The second day also happened to be the last Quidditch match of the school year—and Ravenclaw flattened Gryffindor. Even Hermione, who wasn't sure why anyone liked Quidditch, was mournful about the whole thing, but there was always next year.

Envy could remember one of the Bludgers coming so close that it grazed his nose—he still had the scrape because he hadn't bothered going to Madam Pomfrey about it.

The third day, Envy and Ron were neck-deep in a game of exploding snap and Hermione was rereading their Potions textbook when they were informed that Harry had regained consciousness.

As they had been hoping to get the chance to do for the past few days, they leapt to their feet and, without further ado, sprinted to the Hospital Wing.

Indeed, Harry was sitting up in bed looking quite healthy, and also very happy to see them. Despite being given just five minutes to chat, Harry took a whole ten minutes explaining everything. The others gasped at all the right moments, but Envy just let various emotions flit across his face—he was used to situations similar to this, after all, although the fights he used to get in always used alchemy rather than magic.

He was a bit shocked to find out that Voldemort had been sticking out of the back of Quirrell's head (how did that even work?), and angry to hear how touching Quirrell had hurt Harry.

He really was turning out like the Fullmetal shrimp.

"What happened with you, Envy?"

Harry's words snapped him out of his thoughts. "Well, I just stood around and heard a lot of yelling. Eventually Dumbledore came along and got rid of the fire, and we came and got you," he said with a shrug. "So, nothing much."

Harry nodded and they continued to chat for bit before Madam Pomfrey came in and shooed them away.

'-'

"Aww man!" Envy groaned. He was barely able to hear himself over the cheering. "I don't really like the Slytherins, but this is completely unfair!"

"Come on, mate!" Ron's grin looked like it was about to split his face in two. "We haven't won in years, and besides, we deserved those points."

Envy gave a sigh of mock resignation. "Yes, you're right. At least I got some points too." It was true—Envy had received twenty-five points for something-or-other. Something about friends.

Friends.

Humans were so much better than Father had made them out to be.

'-'

The next morning, other Slytherins couldn't be bothered to pick on Envy—everyone was too busy trying to get packed in time.

Envy's owl, which he had called Nipper due to its tendency to snap at his fingers, finally came back just as he was about to leave the castle, much to his relief. It bit a lock of his hair in greeting and flew into the open owl cage strapped to Envy's trunk.

As slips of parchment saying they weren't allowed to use magic during the summer had been handed out earlier, they made the most of their magic on the train—making objects fly about their compartment, repairing things that they happened to break, and practicing different transfigurations. That last bit was mostly Envy.

They made it to Kings Cross Station all too soon. Envy stuck around long enough to be hugged by Ron's mother (which gave him a nice, warm feeling), see Harry's unpleasantly walrus-like uncle, as well as his horse-like aunt and and fat cousin, and have a short but not uncomfortable chat with Hermione's parents, who were dentists.

Then he was off, back to the orphanage.

'-'

When Envy opened the door, he was greeted by a cry of, "Mr. Novus!" and a large hug from Eliza Todd, who seemed to have missed him, despite his supposed bad behavior in the past.

"Oh, everyone will be so happy to see you!" Eliza didn't seem to realize how disliked he was. She pulled him to another room where all the children were sitting around doing various activities.

They stopped when Mrs. Todd cleared her throat, and that's when they all saw Envy.

The loud girl from when he first woke up, Abigail, groaned. "Did he have to come back?"

Envy couldn't stop the the grin that stretched across his face. "I'm home, brats!"

'-'

That night, lying on his cot, Envy could help thinking about what he'd seen in the Mirror of Erised.

Standing there had been himself—surrounded by friends.

* * *

 **I have now discovered that "Hospital Wing" isn't capitalized. *face-keyboard* I'm going to keep capitalizing it, though, for the sake of consistency. I could go back and edit, of course . . .**

 **Anyway, this chapter should not have taken this long. It's also a few hundred words short of what I would have preferred. *sigh* Well, that's okay. It's the end of the school year in the fic, it has every right to be short. I also meant to post this way earlier today, but I got sidetracked and my computer was being slow.**

 **Hope you all enjoyed that! Next book shall be started in the next chapter, everyone be prepared for an encounter with Gilderoy Lockhart! :D Please leave a review. Pleeeeeeease. It's the last chapter of first year, after all!**

 **-Quiet Leaf**


	11. Chapter 11

"Give it back!"

"Nope!"

"Come on, Envy, please? Sissy gave that to me!"

"What's all this racket?"

Envy and Ian froze, Envy still holding the sweet out of the latter's reach, and Ian with his mouth open. The boy wizard quickly hid the candy behind his back and he and the seven-year-old both plastered smiles onto their faces. "Nothing, Mr. Norton!"

The old man glared at them through the crack between the door and its frame. "You had better not be lying to me."

"Nope," they said together, fake smiles still fixed in place.

Norton sniffed and closed the door. The two boys remained silent until his footsteps had faded, then Ian darted behind Envy and snatched back the confectionery.

Envy let out a growl of mock anger. "You win this round, but you won't be so lucky next time."

Ian smiled tentatively, and Envy grinned and ruffled his hair (he'd had to make his own hair go back to the length he'd had at the orphanage before). He had been able to make peace with a few of the kids at the orphanage; Ian and Abigail were among that number, although Abigail liked to pretend she wasn't.

It was July 28 now, just a few days before Harry's birthday—and speaking of Harry, the Boy Who Lived hadn't answered any of his three letters for some reason. It was making him a bit nervous—what if they weren't really friends? Maybe they wouldn't speak to each other come the school year and he would be friendless again.

No, that was ridiculous. After what they'd done last year, there was no way they weren't friends, and he would still have Ron and Hermione.

He shook his head and watched Ian dashed off, presumably to find his sister.

Envy also left the room, but wandered aimlessly rather than looking for anyone in particular. Almost all of the other children had been taken out to a park or something (he hadn't been paying attention). Envy had gotten out of it by pretending he had a stomach ache, then saying he was feeling better about ten minutes after they had left. Ms. Partch seemed to realize he had only been pretending after his supposed stomach ache went away and admonished him with exasperation. After that she had let him go do whatever he wanted as long as it wasn't troublesome. Ian's sister, Mia, had escaped the trip by hiding and had yet to be found. There was a reason she was called the queen of hide-and-go-seek. Ian had stayed behind to look for his sister, of course.

Envy's wanderings led him past what he was sure was the same broom cupboard twice. When he at last came by a third time, he stopped. There were muffled shuffling and thumping noises coming from inside the closet. They stopped for moment, then the door flew open and Mia came tumbling out with a high shriek.

Envy jumped back on reflex, and was glad he did, because otherwise the girl would have landed on him.

Mia groaned and sat up, rubbing her lower back. It was a moment before she noticed the boy she had nearly knocked over staring at her. When she did, she hastily stood and dusted off her skirt.

"Novus," she sniffed. "You're the one who locked that cupboard on me, aren't you?"

Envy blinked. "Huh?"

Mia rolled her eyes and pointed at the door, speaking slowly as if to a very stupid person. "The door was locked a minute after I got in, and I'm guessing you just came along and unlocked it when you knew I was leaning against it."

"I have no idea what you're talking about," Envy deadpanned.

Mia huffed. "Well if you didn't do it, who did? I'm pretty sure you're the only person here light enough on their feet to avoid alerting me that you were coming."

Envy raised his eyebrows and moved around her to take a look at the door. "You didn't hear anyone coming, eh?" He attempted to turn the doorknob a few times. It only twisted on the third try. "It's just a jammed doorknob."

Mia turned red, attempted to stutter out an answer, then gave another angry huff and stomped away.

Envy smirked at her retreating back. That little runt was so stubborn.

Having already traveled the entire building two times, he decided he was done with this particular "activity" and started back to his room. It really was boring here, compared to Hogwarts. Even when Michael was experimenting with chemicals he'd managed to procure from who-knows-where, there wasn't excitement going on.

If only he could visit his friends. However, they hadn't given him their addresses or phone numbers, so he had no idea where they lived.

He passed through the lobby and paused halfway through, having spotted the phone directory. He might not know where Harry or Hermione or the others lived, but he was pretty sure that the Grangers must have their number in that book, seeing as they were dentists. . . .

He grabbed the phonebook and flipped through it until he reached the Gs. Then he searched for the name he was looking for with care. There, Granger Dentistry. Perhaps he could call or visit, but he would have to ask to use the phone first. . . . Ah, screw that rule. He broke them all the time.

He picked the phone up off the receiver, cursing the springy cord, and carefully began to type in the number before thinking better of it. He couldn't call their office when he wanted to talk to their daughter—but he _could_ call their home phone . . . or perhaps drop in without warning. . . . Yeah, that would be fun.

He glanced at and memorized the location of the dental office, returned the phonebook to its customary place on the table that held the the telephone, then continued on his way to his room.

The previous owner of his body had, as Envy had not long ago discovered, been stashing money under the mattress. Envy didn't know where the old Envy had gotten all this money from, but he didn't particularly care to figure it out—he had the money now, and where the other Envy had gathered this stuff from was not his problem. He could use the pounds to catch a bus to the Granger's, get away from this (homely) dump.

He would have to ask for permission to go about London first; if he just up and disappeared, someone might freak out, what with Eliza's tendencies to worry without cease. Unfortunately, Ms. Todd was out on that trip with the others, and he couldn't very well ask Ms. Partch, because she was the nurse, and didn't have the authority to tell him whether he could wander city.

So all he could do for now was wait.

'-'

Envy did wait. He waited until the next morning after breakfast, when he knew Ms. Todd would be in her office. With the other children distracted by whatever they did after meals, he made his way unnoticed to Eliza's office and opened the door without announcing himself.

She looked up, startled, and took off her reading glasses. "Oh, Envy, dear, is something wrong?"

He shook his head. "Nope, but I wanted to make sure you knew I was going to visit a friend from school tomorrow."

"Do they know you're coming?"

Envy nodded without any hesitation. "Yep." Well, maybe not, but she didn't have to know that.

"Hmm . . ." Eliza tapped her chin. "All right. Do you plan to stay for the night or just visit for a few hours?"

Envy opened his mouth to answer, then paused. "Just a few hours."

She nodded. "Be back by seven o'clock."

* * *

 ** **Wow, guys. You surpassed my expectations with the reviews. Fifteen. Fifteen. That is the most reviews I've gotten for any chapter. Well, I dub all of thee awesome! Thanks so much!****

 **On another note, I'm sorry I've been taking so long to write and post chapter, even if some of you guys don't really notice the fic is gone until I update. I procrastinated, was lazy, and I went to a week-long writers workshop, which I just got back from yesterday. There were people cosplaying every day there, and on the last day one person dressed up as Edward Elric and another as Riza Hawkeye! :D**

 **Also, there was no Lockhart this chapter, as you saw. Yeah, sorry, but a reviewer gave me the idea of Envy visiting his friends, so I just had to. . . . Anyway, he** _ **should**_ **show up next time.**

 **(In case some of you didn't remember, Abigail is the "Did he have to wake up?"/"Did he have to come back?" girl.)**

 **Just one question: Do you guys like the orphanage people? Because I feel guilty that no one from Harry Potter appeared in this chapter.**

 **-Quiet Leaf**


	12. Chapter 12

The next morning, Envy was out of bed far earlier than usual. He let out his owl first thing, and by the time breakfast was ready, he had been waiting outside the door for half an hour. The cook looked surprised when she opened the dining room for breakfast. "What are you doing up so early, Envy? I don't know when it was last that I saw you out of bed before nine o'clock."

"Yeah, well." Envy shrugged. "I've got somewhere to be."

"Oh?" The cook opened the doors wider, allowing Envy to push past her. "Where are you going?"

Envy pulled out a chair from the table and took a seat. "I'm visiting a friend from school."

The cook hummed and bustled into the kitchen to get the food. "What is that school of yours called, anyway?"

Envy froze, floundering inside as he tried to come up with a response. "It's, um—" He was cut off as the other children began pouring in.

Cook hurried out of the kitchen and began distributing sausages and eggs about the table, and Envy sighed in relief. It looked as if he'd gotten out of ruining his summer this time—and hopefully there wouldn't be a next time.

The cook seemed to forget that she asked about school in the morning rush, and Envy was able to avoid any further questioning. As soon as he had finished breakfast he dashed up to his room, grabbed the money under his mattress, pulled on his socks and shoes, which he was tempted not to wear, and was back in the entrance hall faster than you can say "homunculus".

Ian was there and greeted him with a hug, which Envy squirmed out of after he got over his surprise.

"Don't get run over by a bus okay?"

Envy stared at the boy for a moment, wondering about the his sanity, then laughed. "All right, brat." He turned and started out the door, ignoring Ian's shouts of, "I'm not a brat!"

The day outside was just warming up, and the London air was full of city smells. The closest bus stop was a block away, so it didn't take long to get there. He waited at the stop for about ten minutes before a bus stopped by, conveniently heading in the right direction. Envy paid once he was on board and took a seat near the middle.

He hadn't realized before how far the Granger's were from his orphanage, but he began to get an idea after half an hour of driving through moderately fast traffic. But at last, he was out of that stuffy bus and staring up at the building labeled _Granger Dentistry_.

Envy wondered why he was feeling so nervous now. Really, he was just going to visit a friend.

With a deep breath, he pushed the door open. A bell above the entrance rang, and the receptionist looked up from the fashion magazine she was reading.

"Oh! Can I help you?"

Envy came to the realization that it wasn't normal for a twelve-year-old to walk into the dentist's without a guardian. "Yeah, I'm a friend of Hermione Granger's from school and I don't know her address, so I looked this place up in the phone directory . . ."

The receptionist—her name tag said Patty—looked surprised. "You know Hermione?" She narrowed her eyes suspiciously, then shook her head and smiled. "I'm sure she'll be happy to have a friend over. The Grangers live upstairs above this floor." She pointed at a staircase across from her desk.

Envy grudgingly thanked the woman, then headed for the stairs. At the top was a door, which he quietly opened. They were friends right? Why bother knocking? He didn't consider himself a polite person anyway.

Upon entering the hallway beyond the door, Envy closed it behind him and looked around. There were several more doors lining the walls; the first on the right turned out to be a closet, and the one across from that was wide open—as a matter of fact, it didn't even have a door. It looked to be a sitting room, and on the sofa inside sat Hermione, nose-deep in a book.

Envy stared into the room nervously, considering whether or not this was a good idea. Then a thought occurred to him and a wicked grin spread across his face. He crept into the room, careful not to make a noise (although he doubted Hermione would notice if he did, anyway), until he was positioned behind the sofa. He waited for a moment to make absolutely sure his friend didn't know he was there, then pounced.

Hermione let out a shriek and dropped her book, then spun around, escaping Envy's grip on her shoulders and jumping to her feet in the process. She gaped at him for a moment before regaining her composure and allowing her face to settle into a pleasantly surprised smile. "Envy! When did you get here?" She paused. "Did you get a haircut?"

He shrugged and jumped over the back of the couch to join her as she sat down again. "About a minute ago. And yes, I did." That last bit was a lie, but he was still going to keep his ability hidden. "My hair grows pretty fast, though, so it'll be back by the time the school year starts."

"Oh. Why didn't you owl me to say you were coming?" Hermione leaned over to retrieve her book from the floor.

"Didn't feel like it." Envy glanced around. All his nervousness seemed to have evaporated. "So, what have you been doing all summer?"

Hermione reopened the book and marked her place before shutting it. "I visited my friend from back when I went to Muggle school, and I've finished all my summer homework."

Envy decided to ignore the fact that she had implied that she had only one friend when she went to a normal school.

"I've been sending letters to Harry whenever yours or Ron's owl deliver letters to me, but he hasn't replied."

Envy furrowed his brow. It was a relief to know he wasn't being abandoned, but also worrying, considering that Harry should be able to reply. "I haven't been getting any answers either. You think something's wrong?"

"Well . . ." She looked thoughtful. "The only reason I can think of for why Harry isn't replying is that his aunt and uncle are keeping the owls from getting to him somehow. Even so, he should be able to send us letters with Hedwig . . . unless they're not letting her out of her cage."

Envy sighed. "Well, I'm sure he's fine. He handled himself all right against Quirrell, didn't he?"

"I suppose you're right." Hermione began fiddling with her book. The two of them sat in silence for a while before Envy staged the question playing on his mind.

"So, what should we do?"

'-'

Fifteen minutes later when he was being dragged around a Muggle bookshop, he regretted asking that question. Hermione was talking animatedly about what she thought about a book he'd never heard of called _Alice's Adventures in Wonderland_. It sounded like a very odd story, and Hermione told him several times that he should read it. He said no, of course, but she continued to pester him.

A few hours later, during which Envy ended up breaking into the horror and crime novels in the adult section, Hermione seemed to realized how long they'd been away. Envy groaned as they exited the building. "How long were we in there? I'm starving! It must be past lunchtime by now. And how the hell did you get me into books, anyway?"

Hermione laughed. "I like to think of books as doors to the imagination. They're like movies in your head."

"Yeah, I guess. . . ."

The walk back to Hermione's place was about ten minutes, and they spent half of that time in silence and the other half chatting aimlessly. They were careful not to mention school when anyone was close enough to hear.

The dentistry was just as quiet when they got back as it had been when they left, but there was talking coming from doors to the side where the dental work rooms and offices were.

Upstairs in the kitchen, a note had been left on the table by Hermione's parents about some sandwiches Mrs. Granger had made for lunch.

"Have you finished your summer homework yet?" Hermione asked after swallowing a bit of her sandwich.

"Just the Transfiguration stuff. But I'll get the rest done soon," he added at her reproachful look.

They whiled away the rest of the time Envy had there chatting and playing board games. At some point, Mr. and Mrs. Granger finished with work for the day, closed up, and joined them on the living floor for a few games.

At a quarter past six, Mrs. Granger stopped watching Envy and Mr. Granger's intense game of chess began pulling cooking ware from the cupboards. "Will you be staying for dinner?"

Envy shook his head. "Nah, I have to be home by seven." He pushed a chess piece sideways. "Rook to E3. When are you guys going to Diagon Alley?"

Mr. Granger frowned at the chessboard. "Hm . . . no idea. . . ."

"You should owl Ron to see when the Weasleys are going," Hermione suggested. "Then we can all go on the same day and meet up."

Envy shrugged. "Sure."

"Checkmate."

Envy's head snapped down to look at the board and was greeted by the sight of his king, completely cornered. "Oh, come on!"

'-'

Back at the orphanage, after dinner (during which Ian babbled to him constantly about what he'd done today and how his friend, Dennis Creevey, had visited), Envy found himself waiting in his room for his owl to return. There was no way he was going to leave the window open all night for it to fly in and wake him up. He frowned. Now that he thought of it, was his owl a he or a she?

He spent a few minutes contemplating this question. He still hadn't come to a conclusion by the time Nipper got back, and so decided to refer to the owl as an it.

'-'

Envy wrote a letter to Ron first thing next morning asking when his family would do their school shopping, then made his way down to breakfast. Ron's reply came that evening before dinner:

 _Dear Envy,_

 _No idea, but we usually go to Diagon Alley a bit after we get our Hogwarts letters. I'll ask Mum about it when we do and owl you._

 _Ron_

 _P.S. Have you heard from Harry? I've been sending letters all summer and he hasn't answered any of them._

Envy folded up the letter, pulled out a bit of parchment, and began to write his own note to Hermione, plus another one to Ron on the back of the reply he'd been sent.

 _Ron says he'll owl me when his Mum tells him when they're going. I'll owl you then._

 _Envy_

And,

 _I haven't been getting any replies either. Hermione thinks something might be wrong, and I guess she's probably right._

 _Envy_

He tucked the letters inside his bedside table, deciding to send them in the morning, then sorted through his trunk to find some of his summer homework. "Hm . . . might as well get the boring stuff out of the way first," he muttered, picking up his History of Magic homework and textbook from the trunk.

Fifteen minutes and a sloppy essay about the first of the Giant Wars later, Envy threw down his quill and leaned back in his chair with a sigh of relief. No more History of Magic homework. But there was still a whole pile of other subjects to cover. . . . Eh, it could wait.

He stared up at the ceiling, following a long crack with his eyes. He had the distinct feeling that we was forgetting something, and he couldn't remember what it was. . . .

 _CRASH._

Envy leaped from where he had fallen on the floor and began searching his trunk frantically. He couldn't believe he'd forgotten—Harry's birthday was tomorrow, and he was just sitting around doing homework!

He soon spotted what he was looking for; it was't much, just a box of Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans, but Harry had said that they didn't have to get him anything expensive.

Using a bit of parchment, the gift—ugh, he felt so cheesy giving one—was soon wrapped with a homemade card tied on (now he felt even cheesier, but he hadn't been able to make a trip to Diagon Alley for anything better). Nipper flew through the window shortly after with a mouse clutched in its beak.

"Drop that," Envy snapped. The owl looked rather offended, but did as it was told. Envy offered it the parcel, which Nipper accepted grudgingly. "Take that to Harry."

'-'

Envy was perplexed the following afternoon at one o'clock when his owl returned looking rather ruffled and carrying the parcel, but not the letter—and there wasn't even a note explaining why the gift hadn't been accepted. Had he been wrong to offer Every Flavor Beans? Maybe Harry didn't like them . . . but that didn't explain why it was wrapped just the same as Envy had done it. Maybe Harry wasn't able to keep anything bulkier than a letter for fear of his relatives confiscating it—but then Harry would have attached a note about it. And he hadn't been sending replies. Was his mail being intercepted?

Envy eventually decided that he was overthinking things and let Nipper rest for an hour and eat its mouse before sending his notes to Ron and Hermione. Hopefully they would get back to him soon.

'-'

Four days later, Envy received a letter from Ron that was much longer than usual. He thought the explanation inside could have been shorter, but it was all right, because he was bored and didn't have anything to do since he'd forced himself to finish his homework.

 _Dear Envy,_

 _Me, Fred, and George all flew over to Harry's place in a flying car Dad rigged up to bring him to our place. There were bars on his window! Can you believe it?_

 _Anyway, we tore those off and Fred and George climbed through the window and went downstairs to get Harry's trunk. Harry almost forgot Hedwig, and she screeched and woke up everyone in the house, the bloody bird. We barely made it out of there._

 _It turns out that the reason Harry hasn't been replying is because he hasn't even been getting any of our letters! Apparently a house-elf has been stealing all the mail that's been sent to him, and Hedwig was locked up so he could never send anything with her. Dobby (that's the elf) doesn't want Harry to go to school this year for some reason. We think Malfoy probably sent him._

 _Hope you're doing all right. Hogwarts letters should be coming soon._

 _Ron_

Envy laughed out loud. He was relieved, although he wouldn't admit it, and he found it all too amusing that Ron and the twins flew to Harry's Muggle home in the middle of the night to save him. Talk about unbelievable!

. . . Then again, his situation wasn't all that credible either.

'-'

After another week, Envy received his school book list and later finally got the letter he'd been waiting for from Ron:

 _Dear Envy,_

 _Mum says we'll go to Diagon Alley tomorrow. Hope you can come._

 _Ron_

Envy grinned.

'-'

He caught a bus the next morning as soon as he could after finishing breakfast and got off close to the Leaky Cauldron.

It was easy enough to get Mrs. Todd to let him go when he informed her that he was getting school supplies, and yes, he had the money for it, and no, he wasn't telling her where he got the money from, and no, he hadn't stolen it. That last part might have been been a lie when it came to the Muggle money he had, but that didn't really matter, seeing as he didn't know where it came from in the first place.

The pub was just filling up as he walked in, some of the patrons yawning while others talked and laughed boisterously with their fellows. Envy shuddered as a soot-covered person fell out of the fireplace in a roar of green flames. He'd read a bit about Floo travel, but he didn't end up getting far past the ' _Travel by fire'_ part. He'd at least read enough to know that the Floo powder made it so the flames didn't _burn_.

He pushed those thoughts away and noticed that the person who had fallen out of the fireplace had been followed by a few others. After a moment of studying them, he realized with a chuckle that it was, in fact, the Weasleys who were tumbling over each other.

Once he was sure that they were all out and no flames were going to reach him when he approached, he drew closer just in time to hear the twins say, "Hey, where's Harry? He came through right after us, didn't he?" The Weasleys began looking around, but Envy froze as one though invaded his mind:

What if the Floo powder hadn't worked correctly and Harry had _disintegrated_?

"Oy, Envy!"

Envy's head snapped up and his gaze landed on Ron, who was waving his arms.

"Good to see you, mate! Have you seen Harry?"

Envy finally walked all the way to the Weasley Clan. "Nope. Just got here two minutes ago."

"Oh, I knew it," Mrs. Weasley fretted, cleaning Ginny's face with a handkerchief. "He mispronounced Diagon Alley. He must have arrived in the wrong fireplace."

Envy breathed a sigh of relief. They might not be out of the woods yet, but at least he knew that his friend _probably_ hadn't been turned into a pile of ashes.

The Weasleys plus Envy were too worried about Harry to stay and wait for the Grangers, and so they agreed to begin looking for him. They split into two groups; Envy, Ron, the twins, Percy, and Mr. Weasley went looking one way, and Mrs. Weasley and Ginny followed close behind to make sure they didn't miss him.

Eventually they found Harry in front of Gringotts with Hagrid and Hermione. It turned out Harry had come out of a fireplace in some shop called Borgin and Burkes in a shady place called Knockturn Alley. Maybe he'd check it out later. . . .

After retrieving some money from their respective vaults (Envy didn't bother to be embarrassed that he had more money than the Weasleys—Harry's fortune far outweighed his), the Weasleys plus Harry, Envy, and Hermione all parted ways to deal with what they had to do—or in Mr. Weasley's case, take Mr. and Mrs. Granger for a drink.

The quad really only needed schoolbooks, so they bought some ice cream and began wandering the alley, taking interest in the displays in front windows. At one point while exploring a small junk shop, they found Percy reading a book titled _Prefects Who Gained Power,_ but were quickly shooed away to leave him in peace.

As planned, they went to Flourish and Blotts an hour later. It was a surprise to see that a number of middle-aged witches were clogging the way in, all whispering excitedly and craning their necks to see inside the shop. The reason why was made apparent by the banner stretching across the front windows proclaiming that Gilderoy Lockhart would be signing copies of his autobiography today.

Envy wasn't quite sure why the name sounded so familiar until Hermione let out an exclamatory squeal about how he'd written most of the book list.

"Magical Me, huh?" Envy said as he reread the banner. "That's quite a self-centered title for an autobiography."

"Oh, I'm sure it's nothing," Hermione answered dismissively.

"Whatever you say."

They made it into the shop a few minutes later after some jostling, then grabbed copies of _The Standard Book of Spells, Grade 2_ , and went up the line to where the rest of the Weasleys and the Grangers were standing.

Envy looked to the table where Lockhart was flashing a grin and winking at the woman who he was signing a book for (she was blushing furiously). And in that moment, he came to the unchangeable conclusion that Gilderoy Lockhart was an idiot.

'-'

 _Random End Tidbit:_

Harry had to wonder how Dobby managed to fit all those letters in the pillowcase he was wearing.

* * *

 **So sorry about the wait! I honestly have no excuse other than laziness.**

 **I decided to put the Grangers up above their business because that seemed a whole lot better than making Envy have to walk somewhere or take the bus again. And speaking of buses, I have never been on one except my church's bus, so I don't know how all the stops work or if it's different in the UK. Please correct me if I got anything wrong.**

 **I had to get up calendars from 1992 to figure out the timeline. It was a bit of a pain, but in the end I figured out the exact day the Weasleys went to Diagon Alley that year! It was Wednesday, 12 August, if anyone was wondering.**

 **I am answering one guest review this chapter:**

 **Guest: Hi ! Your story is so cool and fun ! But i have a question. Will the other homunculus and/or Father be there as well ? (I don't know if this sentence is correct because i'm French and in middle school so i hope it is and if no i'm sorry**

 **First of all, no, the rest of the homunculi and Father will not be involved. This story is just for Envy. Second, your English was perfectly fine! Keep improving. :)**

 **And to Kira Akuma, a not-guest, I really wanted to make Envy visit Harry, but I decided that Surrey is too far away . . . even though I realized a bit later that it's not. . . .**

 **Hey, what do you guys think Envy's owl's gender is? Because I could have sworn it was female, but then I looked back through previous chapters where Nipper appeared and I found that I had referred to it as an It the whole time. So, yeah, what do you guys think?**

 **And on one last note, thanks so much for 150 follows! This story has almost 100 favorites and reviews, so please help that number grow!**

 **-Quiet Leaf**


	13. Chapter 13

Envy had been pretty tempted to kill Lockhart after the whole debacle in the bookshop. He was just about to leave so as not to give in to the urge when the great Moron of Morons himself announced that he would be teaching Defense Against the Dark Arts at Hogwarts this year.

Great.

Envy did _not_ want at teacher who greeted everyone with a list of his achievements and flashed a grin at every girl who crossed his path, no matter the age. Talk about creepy.

Now, having finished his school shopping, he was taking a look around the place known as Knockturn Alley, features morphed so that he couldn't be recognized, and school supplies in a bag hanging at his side. It was dark, all right, and he could see why Mrs. Weasley wouldn't let her children come down here. Still, Envy found it fascinating—who wouldn't want to stare at human skulls and cursed artifacts all day?

. . . Well, maybe normal people didn't like this stuff, but Envy wasn't by any means normal.

Looking through the window of _Borgin and Burkes_ , a shop which Harry had mentioned earlier, Envy peered at an array of creepy objects set in a haphazard line on the top shelf. Several books, undoubtedly about Dark Magic, a large jar with something green inside it, and a glowing blue clock. Nothing much to look at.

He was pushed out of the alley half an hour later by an older wizard who thought that Knockturn Alley was not the business of any children. He wanted to snap at the man that he was older than just about anyone in this world, but he knew his outburst would be passed off as utter nonsense.

With a huff, he stalked back up Diagon Alley until he reached the wall dividing the alley from the Leaky Cauldron, tapped it to let it know he wanted back through, and marched through the pub until he reached the door and left back into Muggle London.

'-'

Envy closed his Transfiguration textbook with a yawn. Two weeks was a bit of a while for him to take finishing a new book on the subject, but since Ian frequently burst into his room and interrupted him, it was no surprise.

Speaking of which, he could hear footsteps outside his room. With practiced ease, he shoved the spellbook under his pillow and folded his hands behind his head, staring at the ceiling as if he was just thinking about something.

Right on cue, the door flew open, banging against the wall behind it. Envy feigned surprise and jolted into a sitting position. He then groaned and leaned back onto his pillow. "What is it this time, Ian?"

The boy was almost floating in place with how fast he was jumping up and down. "Envy, guess what! Dennis came over with his brother, come on, let's go talk to them!"

Envy sighed. He remembered now—Ian had been babbling on for days about how his friends were coming for a visit.

Ian was already gone from the doorway by the time Envy hauled himself to his feet. Once he had survived getting down the stairs (he'd tripped), Envy could immediately see why Ian was friends with these other kids; all three of them were excitedly chattering away and each other and bouncing in place like there was no tomorrow. For a moment he thought Ian had multiplied.

Upon seeing that Envy had joined them, Ian did a little twirl where he stood. "Envy! This is Dennis and Colin!"

Envy began automatically tuning out Ian while thinking about how much the boy exclaimed, but came back to himself a moment later when the blond said something particularly loud about dinosaurs.

Not absolutely sure what he had said, Envy just nodded in agreement. Ian beamed, and he took that as a sign that it had been the sort of thing you're supposed to agree or disagree with.

"Hey Envy, do want to see a cool—"

"Nope." Envy sighed at the disappointed look on Ian's face. "I'm a bit tired. Maybe some other time."

Ian still looked a bit dejected. "Okay. . . ." Then a grin, which Envy would have thought was evil if he didn't know better, spread across the boy's face. "But you're coming next time." Mood back to normal, the seven-year-old turned back to his friends and the three of them bounced away to the common room.

Envy decided to compare them to rabbits.

'-'

Envy tapped his foot on the floor impatiently. At this point he had given up standing around and had loaded his luggage into a compartment on the _Hogwarts Express_. Now he was leaning against the wall next to the barrier leading to Muggle King's Cross and waiting for someone he knew to come through.

He checked his watch, a recently acquired item that Eliza had given him just in case.

10:49

A trolley rushed through the barrier, immediately followed by Hermione and her parents.

She looked around briefly and jumped when she noticed him watching her. "Oh, there you are, Envy! I didn't expect to find you so quickly."

He grinned. "I guess I've developed a habit of sneaking up on you. Come on, I saved us a compartment." He pushed himself off the wall and began winding his way through the crowded platform, the Grangers close behind, and climbed into the train once he reached it. He waited for Mr. and Mrs. Granger to help their daughter get her luggage through the door before moving on.

An unsure first year was standing in front of the compartment when they reached it, but Envy rudely shooed him away and pulled the door open, letting a disapproving Hermione enter first.

"Thank you." She pulled her trunk into the compartment behind her and began attempting to store it on the rack above. Envy sighed and got in behind her—it was obvious that the girl wasn't going to be able to get the trunk up on her own.

"Here." Their combined efforts soon had the luggage in its place. Envy swept some of his regrown hair out of his face and jabbed a thumb out the window. "I'm going back out there to wait for Harry and the Weasleys. You coming?"

She nodded and they both left the compartment and exited the train.

The amount of people still standing on the platform was decreasing at a fast pace as the students went to find seats, so it was easy to spot the redheads who had just come through the barrier. However, Envy noticed something wasn't quite right with the group.

He glanced over at Hermione, who also appeared to have realized that Harry was not to be seen among the Weasley clan, judging by the worried expression on her face.

Fred and George were the first to spot them, and they both grinned.

"Hello Hermione—"

"—Envy," continued the one who had not first spoken. "Listen, about that prank idea—"

Envy cut him off before he could continue. "Where's Harry?"

The Weasleys paused in their greetings and chatter and looked around. Apparently, they couldn't see Harry either.

"Perhaps he and Ron haven't passed through the barrier yet?" Hermione speculated anxiously.

Envy almost slapped himself when he realized Ron was missing as well. It was hard to keep track of all these gingers. He really did slap himself at his next thought. "This is like the Floo powder incident all over again," he muttered. Was it possible to pass through the barrier and end up in the wrong place?

"I'll check on them," Mr. Weasley volunteered. He turned around and started walking back the way he had come, only to crash into the wall, and look rather ridiculous while he was at it.

Mrs. Weasley gasped. "By Merlin—! Arthur, are you all right?"

Mr. Weasley winced and gingerly touched his face. "Yes, I'm fine. What on earth is wrong with the barrier?"

Envy glanced down at his watch and interrupted everyone's confused, "I don't know"s. "Hey, it's almost eleven o'clock. The train's about to leave."

This sent everyone into a panicked frenzy. There was a moment of indecision before they left the barrier; they might be worried about Harry and Ron, but they needed to get on the train as soon as possible because it left at _exactly_ eleven o'clock, without waiting for lagging students.

Ron and Harry still hadn't shown up by the time Mrs. Weasley had loaded them onto the train, so the two Weasley parents saw them off with promises to search for the missing boys after they left the platform. Then the train started and they were swept out of sight.

The group stood there for a moment.

Percy cleared his throat. "Well, I have a prefect meeting to attend to." Despite his pompous demeanor, his voice betrayed worry. No one pointed it out, however, and they allowed him to push his way through the crowded corridor to wherever the prefects held their meetings.

The twins glanced around. "Well, we'd better go find Lee." With that, they also left, shoulders tense.

Next to Envy, Hermione took a breath. "Let's go to our compartment, shall we? You can sit with us if you'd like, Ginny."

The red-haired girl nodded, and the the three of them squeezed their way through the dwindling crowd of students in the corridor and down the car to the compartment Envy had claimed earlier. About half the students had filtered into compartments once they reached theirs, leaving them a lot more room to move around. This also made it very easy to get to the door, look through it, and see the blond boy swinging his legs back and forth in front of him and sitting in Envy's seat. He was really familiar, but Envy wasn't quite sure why—he was mostly annoyed at the brat for taking his spot, anyway.

He pushed open the door with a small _bang_. "Get out of our compartment, pipsqueak."

The kid looked up and grinned. "I knew it was you!"

Envy blinked and stared for a moment, trying his best to come up with an intelligent response; "Huh?"

"You're Envy Novus, Ian's friend! It says so on your trunk."

It was then that Envy remembered. "Oh, you're one of Ian's clones—I mean pals." He momentarily forgot about the two girls standing behind him. "What are you doing in my compartment?"

The boy beamed. "I was looking for a place to sit, and this one didn't have anything in it except a couple of trunks, so I thought I'd wait around and ask to sit here, and then I saw the name on your trunk!"

"Right. . . ." Envy scratched the back of his head. "Well, you're going to have to move over a seat. I'm sitting there."

Colin (finally, Envy remembered his name!) moved without fuss, and soon all all four students were seated, Ginny's trunk having been stored above them.

Hermione struck up a conversation with a tentative Ginny, and Envy was left with the chattering Colin.

"So you're a wizard too, Envy?"

"Well," he drawled sarcastically. "I might be, seeing as I'm sitting on a train on my way to a wizard school."

"Cool! This explains a lot; Ian says you have some weird things in your room."

Envy sighed and had just about resigned himself to a day of chittering eleven-year-olds (he shuddered to think what Colin would be like on sugar) when there was a timid knock on the door and it opened. Neville poked his head inside.

"Uh, hi. Can I sit here?"

Hermione smiled. "Of course Neville!" She gestured to the open seat on the other side of Ginny, and from there the conversations spread to both sides of the compartment. Eventually the talk turned to family professions.

"My parents are dentists," Hermione put in after Neville admitted that his grandmother didn't work because she was old and that they had a fortune anyway.

"What do your parents do, Envy?" Neville asked.

Hermione winced, but Envy ignored her. "I grew up in an orphanage."

Guilt washed over Neville's face. "Oh, sorry."

"Do you have any family at all, if you don't mind me asking?" Hermione said.

Envy shrugged. "I don't think so."

An awkward silence fell, but fortunately Colin broke it.

"My dad's a milkman."

* * *

 **FINISHED! THE CHAPTER IS DONE, AND ONLY AFTER A LITTLE OVER TWO WEEKS! *celebrates* It would seem I'm getting better at updating. :D**

 **Colin's dad really is a milkman, though. . . . XD**

 **Anyway, a guest reply:**

 **Guest: Even though the other Homunculus won't be there? Will anyone else from FMA be in the fanfic?**

 **Nope, it's just Envy. :)**

 **Thanks for getting me past the 100 mark on favorites and reviews! You know, I came back from a five-day camping trip to ten alerts and several favorites, it was quite a pleasant surprise. ^-^ (Meanwhile: *has a staring contest with the lizard that was crawling across the livingroom floor*)**

 **I've decided Envy's owl is female. But of course, Envy doesn't know that. . . . XD**

 **I keep forgetting to do this, but I'm going to shamelessly advertise my other in-progress fanfiction, Heist. It's not a crossover, just Fullmetal Alchemist, and its content includes Ed being a thief and Mustang catching him. ^-^ So if you'd like, please check it out!**

 **One last thing, I drew a picture of Ian (or at least, his head) on whim and posted it on DeviantArt. I'll put a link somewhere near the top of my profile page for anyone who wants to see it.**

 **-Quiet Leaf**


	14. Chapter 14

Colin left for Hagrid soon after the four of them exited the train, and Envy, Hermione, and Neville all followed the flow of older students.

Rather than taking the boats across the lake as they had in first year, this time they got to ride up to the castle in a carriage pulled by a pair of skeletal black horses with bat-like wings. For some reason, Hermione was unable to see the creatures, but Neville gave them a strange look, so Envy assumed that he had noticed them as well.

Harry and Ron were still nowhere to be seen once they arrived at the castle. Envy had to split off from Hermione and Neville then and sit at the Slytherin table. It was hard to see from there, but he wasn't able to discern Ron and Harry from the crowd of students filtering in. They still weren't here; at this point he could only hope that they would dramatically fling the doors open in the middle of the feast.

After finishing his meal, Envy began observing the teachers to see if they noticed that there were students missing. Snape's seat at the head table was noticeably empty, and soon after the Sorting ceremony Dumbledore and McGonagall left through a door to the side.

Harry and Ron had not kicked open the doors to the Great Hall by the time the food disappeared.

The feast was concluded by a returned Dumbledore, and the houses stood as one and began shuffling their way out of the Hall, conversations interrupted every so often by loud yawns. Envy was unable to get near Hermione as he was dragged along in the river of his fellow Slytherins, and so resigned himself to wait until tomorrow morning to talk to her.

'-'

Envy woke with a start in the morning as he was jerked foot-first into the air by an invisible rope.

This was not an unusual wake up call for him in Slytherin house; it had started sometime late last year, but despite his irritation with his housemates, Envy was grudgingly thankful because this kept him from sleeping in, as he had done several times a couple terms ago.

As usual, he was dropped once the blood had rushed to his head and Malfoy and his henchmen strolled leisurely out of the dormitory, laughing their heads off.

Envy waited until he had reoriented himself before standing up and getting dressed.

He noticed a lot of giggling on the way to the Great Hall, not directed at him, fortunately—it seemed more incredulous and entertained than anything.

The first thing he did once he reached his destination was look up at the owls flowing in through the windows. The second thing he did was search the Gryffindor table for Ron and Harry; he was not disappointed.

Ron was gazing in terror at the smoking bright crimson letter in his hands.

Envy began walking closer, noticing Neville saying something with a nervous look on his face. He was several chairs down from the rest of the Quad when Ron opened the envelope and there was an explosion of noise.

A very loud female voice—Envy was pretty sure it was Mrs. Weasley's—started berating Ron for . . . for stealing the flying car. . . .

Envy couldn't keep back the chuckle that forced its way out of his mouth. He was soon laughing as hard as the rest of the school, but it seemed the distance between he and his friends was enough to keep them from noticing he was there.

By the end of the letter's tirade, Ron's ears were as red as tomatoes and he had sunk so low in his chair that only his hair could be seen. Harry looked embarrassed, and Ginny joined him in this sentiment when Mrs. Weasley's voice congratulated her on getting into Gryffindor, thereby involving her in the situation.

The laughter began dying down soon after the letter finished, and it was replaced by normal chattering, although the subject of many people's conversations had changed.

Envy was still chuckling when he sat next to his ashamed friends. "What the hell happened to make you mum send you something like that?"

Ron straightened up in his chair, staring sullen-faced down at his breakfast.

"They stole Mr. Weasley's flying car to get here because the barrier wouldn't let them through," Hermione answered matter-of-factly.

Envy groaned. "I shouldn't have gotten there so early; maybe I could have gone with you."

"It's a good thing you didn't!" Hermione sniffed. "You could have gotten into serious trouble."

"Lighten up, Hermione!" Envy sighed, piling some sausages onto his plate. "The worst that happened was—well, whatever happened."

"They both have detentions."

Envy raised his eyebrows, adding a slice of toast to his plate. "That's a light punishment if I ever saw one. Are the professors playing favorites?"

Ron shrugged. "Could be. Harry is the Boy Who Lived after all."

"But McGonagall never plays favorites unless it's Quidditch," Harry protested. "Besides, they wouldn't let me off of something this big just because I'm famous."

Hermione nodded in agreement.

"Now," Envy started. "What happened after you stole the car?"

Ron's expression brightened. "It was brilliant! We could have done without the heat, though—"

He continued into a lengthy explanation of their time in the car, with Harry adding in some details he missed, making Envy wish more than ever that he'd been able to go with them, consequences or none.

Halfway through, Mcgonagall came by the Gryffindor table to pass out schedules, and was followed soon after by a sour-faced Professor Snape with Envy's schedule.

Ron was just finishing with his recounting of the incident with the Whomping Willow, something Envy was glad not to have been there for, when Hermione informed them that they should leave for classes at once is they didn't want to be late.

Envy had Charms first, while the Gryffindors had Herbology, so the parted ways in the entrance hall.

'-'

The moment Envy walked into the Great Hall for lunch, he was figuratively pounced upon by the bubbly camera boy who was Colin Creevey.

"I didn't know you were in Slytherin, Envy! I've heard they have a really awful reputation and they all hate people like me. Is that true? Can you introduce me to Harry Potter?"

"Slow down," Envy groaned, continuing to forge his way to the Gryffindor table where he could see the distinctive heads of his friends. "I can't answer your questions if you spew them all at the same time."

"Right, right, sorry!" Colin suddenly let out a little, "Eep!" and jumped behind Envy as if to hide.

"What the hell—"

"He's _right there_!"

Envy glanced up at where Colin was pointing. "Who, Ron?"

"No, Harry!"

Envy sighed. He never took Colin to be the shy sort. "He's not going to bite you head off for asking for a photo," he reassured him, glancing down at the camera the boy was clutching. "Just ask him, maybe he'll agree." At this point he reached a seat by Hermione and plopped down next to her.

"Hello, Envy," she greeted him.

He grunted in response, reaching for a sandwich.

Envy split his attention between Colin, who was tentatively greeting Harry, and Hermione, who was telling him how her classes went and asking about his. Just like last year, she seemed to have memorized his schedule with a glance that morning, because she asked about each of his morning classes by subject.

Envy muttered something about being late for Charms, still trying to keep an ear on Colin's stutterings, and Hermione nodded understandingly. "Professor Lockhart held Harry back from Herbology. I wonder what they were talking about. . . ."

Lockhart chose this moment to strut by (Envy couldn't abandon the sneaking suspicion that the idiot was going by the Gryffindor table just to see what Harry was up to), just in time to hear Colin say, "Can I have a picture?"

Having passed them already, Lockhart swung around.

By this time Envy was already standing, sandwich in hand. "I'm out of here," he informed Hermione before rushing off to escape the torment that was his Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher.

'-'

Envy was joined in the courtyard ten minutes later by a frazzled Harry, a disgruntled Ron; an amused and exasperated Hermione, and an embarrassed but elated Colin, who was trailing behind them.

Upon seeing the inquisitive look on Envy's face, Hermione immediately explained their disastrous encounter with Lockhart.

"—So now Malfoy's spreading about that Harry's giving out photos. It's a good thing he didn't hear the part where Lockhart said he'd sign Colin's picture."

Envy sighed. "So he's still an idiot. And I thought that maybe he'd have changed after coming in contact with Dumbledore," he said sarcastically. "The old man's intelligence is contagious, you know."

Hermione bristled. "He's not stupid! Look at all the things he's done, he's written all about them!"

"Some people are just really good at lying, y'know?" Envy shrugged, smirking. "Maybe he _is_ telling the truth, but he's still a moron."

Hermione huffed, then pulled out her copy of _Voyages with Vampires_ and buried her nose in it.

Envy yawned, listening as Colin started a one-sided conversation with Harry, who was looking awkward. Having gotten over the incident in the Great Hall, Ron appeared amused.

After Colin had mentioned Envy three times, Harry finally managed to get a word in. "Did you know Envy before you came to Hogwarts?"

Colin beamed. "Of course, he's friends with Ian!"

Harry just looked confused, so Colin elaborated further.

"One of the kids at the orphanage."

Ron and Harry's faces lit up in understanding, and Hermione, who had climbed out of her book, had an expression which clearly stated that she had already figured that out.

The bell chose that moment to ring, rescuing them from Colin's chattering while simultaneously plunging them back into the fiery pit of interesting and dangerous classes.

Well, Envy's next lesson only dangerous if Professor Binns's voice turned out to be capable of sending someone into a coma, but Harry, Ron, and Hermione all had Defense Against the Dark Arts with Lockhart, and Envy was having a hard time believing that his friends would make it out of the classroom with their brain cells intact.

* * *

 **Envy said mum instead of mom at some point. This is a sign of his long stay in England affecting the way he speaks. Hooray!**

 **Anyway, this chapter should have been out a few days ago, but I was trying to finish a good book and I just felt completely spent every day, so I didn't end up editing for a bit. But it is now complete and out of the way. Yay.**

 **Hope you enjoyed, and please review! Feel free to point out any mistakes. :)**

 **-Quiet Leaf**


	15. Chapter 15

It was most unfortunate, or so Envy thought, that Ron, Harry, and Hermione had been unable to tell him about Lockhart's lesson. They had seemed rather pitying of him when he mentioned he had Defense Against the Dark Arts first thing. Then the bell had rung, and they had told him that they would explain it later.

Their ominous looks were probably the reason for his dread.

The first thing Envy noticed when he walked into the classroom was the disheveled state of the place. What the hell had happened yesterday? And why hadn't the room been cleaned up? Envy wouldn't be surprised if Lockhart was simply too incompetent to master a simple cleaning charm.

Despite the disarray of the classroom itself, Lockhart acted the same as ever. For the lesson, the idiot reenacted a scene from one of his books. The bright side of all this, Envy decided, was that the lesson wasn't nearly as horrific as he had expected, and Lockhart looked like an absolute fool. He called on Malfoy to help him, thereby making him look just as stupid. Malfoy was completely humiliated by the time the bell rang, and he kept muttering angrily under his breath.

In Potions class next thing, Hermione whispered an explanation of what had happened in Defense Against the Dark Arts yesterday and Envy had to smother his laughter. Snape sent a glare his way, but said nothing.

Envy later overheard Lockhart asking Flitwick to help fix his classroom; when asked why he couldn't do it himself, Lockhart simply joked that his wand had gotten over excited and jumped out the window when he was performing a charm, and he had yet to find it. Envy supposed he was too embarrassed to say anything more.

He'd been wrong to think that watching Lockhart fumble around with his new job would be miserable.

'-'

The rest of September and most of October passed in a blur; boring classes, moderately exciting ones, and the laughable Defense Against the Dark Arts lessons. Envy was still top at Transfiguration, much to his delight.

And suddenly it was Halloween.

He hurried down to the dorms to put away his school supplies before the feast and once he had done so, was startled to see a number of ghosts floating through the walls or down the stairs, all heading down a side corridor.

Might as well check it out.

Before a door down the corridor floated Nick, welcoming visitors—what was this, a party?

"Ah, hello Envy," Nick greeted him. "Are you joining the party as well?"

It seemed his guess was correct.

"Uh . . ." Envy stuck his head through the door and quickly drew back when the freezing air touched his face. "What's the party being hosted for? Is it a Halloween gathering?"

Nick chuckled gloomily. "My deathday party."

"Well, no thanks. I should be getting to the feast."

Nick nodded in understanding. "I didn't expect you to . . . Well, off you go, then."

Envy was glad to have gotten away so easily.

He ended up at the Slytherin table again, (Snape required that he sit at his house table during feasts, unfortunately) but managed to get a seat away from the more hostile Slytherins.

The Great Hall was decorated magnificently this year. Envy wondered if the decoration and entertainment would get more extravagant as the years went by. Perhaps next Halloween the ghosts and the bats would join the skeletons in a synchronized dance. Now _that_ would be impressive.

Ron, Harry, and Hermione were nowhere to be seen, and Envy was beginning to wonder if they would just keep disappearing on him all year whenever the feasts rolled around. He hoped not—peace was nice, but a little bit of action wouldn't go amiss; he would prefer to disappear with them.

With the end of the feast came a great scraping of chairs. The dancing skeletons were packed away, and the chatter was split between tired and energetic. Envy wasn't really talking to anyone, of course, because there was no one in Slytherin who was worth talking to.

They seemed to wander aimlessly at first, following the other students up until they reached the second floor, two houses up one staircase and two up the other so they spilled from either end of the corridor.

The students at the front stopped and fell silent, and the rest soon followed. Envy was closer to the back, however, and being rather short, he could barely see the tops of the large letters painted on the wall.

Malfoy's voice rang out mockingly from the front of the crowd, quoting whatever was written on the wall, and Envy growled in annoyance. Already having stood on his toes and been unsuccessful in seeing properly, he pushed through the crowd as Filch's foul voice descended on whoever was unlucky enough to be at the front. Although most of the students were distracted by what they were witnessing and probably wouldn't notice if he used his transformation abilities, he somehow doubted that the person behind him wouldn't think it strange if he began growing taller.

Dumbledore and some others showed up sometime while he was pushing his way forward. He just broke through the front when Dumbledore ordered his three friends to follow him and Lockhart offered up his office for privacy. What had they been doing this whole time? Vandalizing school property?

The crowd parted, proving that it had really been pointless for him to go to the front, and the teachers and their three accompanying students began making their way down the corridor, a very stiff Mrs. Norris carried along as well. Envy followed.

A ways down the corridor, Dumbledore stopped and turned around. "Mr. Novus," he began, "please return to your classmates and follow them back to your dormitory."

His tone left no room for argument. So Envy made room.

"With all due respect, Headmaster," Envy started sarcastically, "I think that since this concerns my friends, I might as well come along."

Dumbledore's expression remained serious. "Return to your dormitory."

Envy stayed for a moment, engaged in a staring contest with Dumbledore's untwinkling eyes, before turning around. "Feh. Fine." He stalked off down the corridor, and had planned to dodge around the corner and wait until the group was a safe distance away before following; unfortunately after a minute of waiting, the footsteps had not started up again, so he was forced to begrudgingly hand the win over to Dumbledore and continue back to his housemates.

When he got back to the corridor, all the other students had already retreated, so he just returned to his dorm.

Despite the quiet of the corridors, the Slytherin common room was alive with chatter. A few of the first years seemed to have gone to bed, but everyone else was still up.

Malfoy had gathered quite a few Slytherins around him and was preaching about the meaning of the writing on the wall. Others were discussing it more quietly, but few seemed at all worried.

As was stated earlier, there was no one in Slytherin worth talking to, so Envy decided he might as well just head straight for his dorm room and pretend to fall asleep for a while. "A while" turned out to be a lot longer than he expected. His dorm mates returned slowly, and he got the feeling that Malfoy was one of the last to turn in for the night.

Finally, once everyone's breathing had slowed to a slow, peaceful rhythm, Envy quietly climbed out of his bed and padded over to the door. He pressed his ear to the wood and listened for a moment.

Silence.

He eased the door open, glad that it was oiled regularly, and closed it behind him before he took off down the hall.

A seventh year girl seemed to have fallen asleep in an armchair in front of the fire. Envy tiptoed by, wincing when he accidentally bumped an end table with a chess board on it and knocked over one of the chess pieces (which yelled at him for it), but the girl only shifted a bit before falling still again.

The corridor outside was quiet and cold. The torches flickered dimly in their brackets, casting a slight glow across the stone floor. Envy's shadow interrupted the unsteady light.

A couple floors up, he paused in front of the writing on the wall. "'The Chamber of Secrets has been opened . . .'" he muttered. "What the hell does that mean?" There was no answer, of course. He shook his head and continued into the corridor on the right. Lockhart's office should be somewhere around here . . . Ah yes, there it was.

Light streamed from the crack under the door. Envy stopped and leaned close to listen.

"Albus, could this possibly mean—"

"Not here, Minerva."

The was a slight sniffling noise, and Dumbledore spoke again.

"We'll have an antidote ready as soon as possible Argus." An antidote? For what? Had Filch caught a cold?

"Thank you, thank you . . ."

"Why don't you get some sleep?" McGonagall suggested. Her voice was full of uncharacteristic sympathy toward the pathetically distraught caretaker.

Filch must have nodded, because footsteps began thumping their way to the door.

Envy's eyes widened and he scrambled back, but he wasn't fast enough. The door creaked open and Filch stepped out. He froze for a moment, and Envy took uncaring note of his puffy eyes.

The caretaker sneered. "Well, what do we have here?"

As the other professors neared the door, Envy glanced down the corridor and weighed his chances; him, a mostly untrained wizard with slow-acting shape-shifting abilities, against two highly skilled wizards and a witch, plus an incompetent and narcissistic buffoon who might be able to accidentally trip him. And a nasty caretaker who he had never seen cast a spell before.

Yeah, there was no way he was getting out of this one. He cursed his lack of foresight; it would have been wiser to take on the appearance of one of his classmates before he went sneaking around.

Meanwhile, Snape had come forward. "Mr. Novus," he said stiffly. Envy guessed he was embarrassed to have a member of his house caught wandering the school at night, let alone having that student eavesdropping on the teachers.

" _Professor_ Snape," Envy replied disdainfully.

Snape's lips twitched as he restrained a sneer. "What are you doing out of your dormitory at this hour?"

Envy decided to go for the deadpan approach. "Breaking the rules."

Snape's eyes narrowed, and he opened his mouth to say something, but Dumbledore broke in.

"Severus." The twinkle was back in his eye. "Why don't you send our young friend back to bed."

Snape scowled. "Very well. Mr. Novus, return to your dormitory. Detention with me, tomorrow after dinner."

Based on the lack of students to be seen in the office beyond the doorway, Envy guessed that Ron, Harry, and Hermione had been sent back to Gryffindor tower. He sighed. "Fine, fine."

Dumbledore bid him goodnight, and Envy begrudgingly set off back to the common room. Snape followed him, no doubt to make sure he didn't sneak off. He was tailed all the way to the common room door. When he proclaimed the passwords and stepped forward, muffled footsteps hurried away.

Well, that had certainly been a pointless outing.

* * *

 **Well. Just in time for October 3rd. I remembered it was soon, and I began the desperate scramble to finish this chapter before it was too late . . . and I made it. Hooray!**

 **Fun fact: Where I am, the first day of autumn was freezing, and the second day was just as warm as the day before the first day of autumn. . . . Weird weather.**

 **I feel like I stereotyped Slytherin house when I said there was no one in Slytherin worth talking to. . . . But those are just Envy's thoughts, and I would think he's prone to stereotyping, what with how he used to think of humans.**

 **Almost two hundred followers! I'M SO CLOSE. *freaks out* Anyway, sorry if the chapter seemed rushed anywhere, because I** _ **was**_ **rushing to get it done. Please review, and if you're not feeling too lazy, please point out any mistakes!**

 **-Quiet Leaf**


	16. Chapter 16

**GUESS WHO'S BAAAAACK! Me. I'm back.**

 **If anyone was wondering, I succeeded in writing all 50,000 words required for NaNoWriMo. Barely. (I got sick in the middle and was delayed. :P)**

 **To people who read this long after it's posted: This chapter was originally an author's note coupled with several omakes to inform readers that I would be gone for November doing NaNoWriMo.**

 **And yes, this chapter is really long. Without author's notes, it's 4,953 words.**

* * *

"So you're saying that a voice was speaking from inside the walls?" Envy asked skeptically. He took a large bite of his egg sandwich.

Harry nodded, munching on some bacon.

Envy sighed. "Well, I would say I believe you, but it was pretty late and you were tired. You were probably just imagining things." Unless Pride had ended up here too. Come to think of it, he'd never really thought of what had happened to the other homunculi. . . .

"I didn't imagine it!" Harry snapped, breaking Envy from his thoughts. "It's just . . ." He trailed off, as if unable to put into words what he wanted to say.

"Hm." Envy swallowed another bite of his sandwich. "Well, you should probably go to Madam Pomfrey and get your mind checked, or something. Just in case. I don't want my friend's brain going down the drain, y'know?"

"He's not crazy," Hermione broke in. "Maybe there really was something in the walls."

"Well, that might be possible." Envy took another bite of his sandwich.

"Of course it is. The voice led to the writing on the wall, it's got to mean something," Ron put in as he impaled a sausage on his fork.

"I heard it while in detention with Lockhart too, I forgot to tell you."

"Let me guess: he didn't hear the voice either, just like Ron and Hermione." Envy popped the last bite of precious sandwich into his mouth. It was a shame—that had been an excellent sandwich, wonderful taste. If only it had lasted longer.

Harry sighed, and Envy forced himself to stop mourning his sandwich. "Yeah. But I know it's real."

Hm. Well, there was magic in this world, he supposed, so it was quite possible that whatever this voice was wasn't all in Harry's imagination. "I'll agree with you unless Madam Pomfrey says you're insane." He reached for another sandwich. It was Sunday morning, the day after Halloween, and seeing as there were no classes today, he had plenty of time to satisfy himself with as many sandwiches as he pleased. He swallowed a bite and took a swig of pumpkin juice. "Do we have anything planned today, or are we just going to lie around doing nothing and pretending yesterday never happened?"

"Well, we don't have anything planned," Hermione said, poking her porridge with her spoon. "But we should get our homework done. We have an essay for Potions due on Wednesday, and I'm only half finished."

Ron groaned and Harry didn't say a word at this reminder.

Envy swallowed another bite of his new sandwich. "My homework's still down in my dormitory, and I don't exactly want to go down there and get it."

Ron rolled his eyes. "It's not that far, Envy. We'll have to walk all the way up to Gryffindor Tower for ours."

"It's not that!" Envy protested. "I'm not that lazy, jeez. I just don't want to bump into any of the people down there; they're not well wishers coming to bow and give me candy out of the goodness of their hearts."

"Oh." Ron was silent.

"You could wait until after breakfast," Hermione suggested. "There's bound to be less people then than there are now."

Envy grinned. "Yeah, but who ever said I wanted to do homework?" He took another bite of his delicious sandwich, commending whoever was down in the kitchen making them.

"Our homework's not going to do itself!" Hermione huffed. "Have you finished any of your homework at all?"

"Hm . . . just the Transfiguration stuff. The rest can wait until I'm scrambling to get it done on time."

"You can't just—"

And from there, the argument spiraled further. Ron decided to pick sides and went with Envy while Harry remained neutral, not wanting to get between his friends.

"What would we do if we don't do homework, anyway?" Hermione snapped eventually.

"Eh . . ." Envy exchanged a glance with Ron.

"We could go flying," the red-head suggested.

Harry brightened then, and seemed much less hesitant to choose between his friends. "Yes!" he agreed. "I'll go get my—"

"I'm not that fond of flying," Envy interrupted. He had swallowed the last of his sandwich by now, and he wasn't sure if he was hungry enough to stomach another one. It would probably be best to just stop eating.

Harry and Ron looked horrified.

"It's okay," Envy drawled, not suppressing a grin at the looks on their faces. "But not my thing."

"See?" Hermione spoke with triumph. "Envy agrees with me—and I don't like flying either."

"Hold on, I never said I wanted to do homework," Envy protested. "I just said that I don't like flying."

They had all finished their breakfasts now, although Harry had finished first, seeing as he hadn't joined in the arguments.

"Then what are you planning to do?" Hermione asked. "We can't all seem to agree on one thing."

"We could walk around the lake," Harry suggested.

"That would be boring," Envy groaned, leaning an elbow on the table. "Is there anything interesting to do in this place?"

"We could practice spells in an empty classroom," Hermione began, "or do our homework in the library."

Ron and Envy both shot her mild glares.

"What? We could find something interesting in the books. We don't just have to use them for homework, you know, there are a lot of things in the library that they never teach you. The sooner we get the homework out of the way, the more time we'll have for other things, anyway."

Hm . . . well, Envy could see her point, but that didn't mean he wanted to give in. Still, it might be a good idea to get his homework over with quickly for once. Which meant going downstairs and back to the dormitory. What a pain. . . .

"Fine," he conceded. "Just this time, though."

Ron groaned and muttered a grudging agreement, and Harry followed in that pursuit. And thus, they all stood and left the Great Hall.

"We'll go up to our dormitory to get our homework," Hermione decided. "Meet us in front of the library."

"All right," Envy sighed. He started toward the stairs leading to the dungeon, and once he was sure their backs were facing him, he turned and watched his friends depart up the sweeping staircase leading to the higher floors. Hopefully no one would bother him in the common room; he'd prefer to be in and out as fast as he could, and perhaps beat his three Gryffindor allies to the library doors.

With a deep breath, he descended the stairs. He passed only one other person on the way down, a still-sleepy member of the higher years, one of those who didn't bother him. He supposed that most of the people still in the common room would be like that, tired and not quite registering their surroundings. That would be good for him; all he would have to do was walk straight through and back, and not a single head would turn.

As it happened, this was not to be.

It seemed Malfoy had returned from breakfast earlier than Envy had—at least, that was what it looked like. He was quite sure he had seen him in the Great Hall when he himself had entered, which wasn't astonishing, since Malfoy was always up early enough to use that spell to yank him into the air.

And there he was, seated in one of the tall armchairs as if it were a throne, laughing his head off at something which had probably been said by him, since his two gorilla bodyguards were too stupid to come up with anything that he might find funny.

This, Envy decided, meant that he would have to be as quiet and unobtrusive as he could in order to get in and out as fast as he possible. With that in mind, he began tiptoeing along the edge of the room, dodging around a couch halfway to the dormitory doors. Unfortunately, it seemed he wasn't going fast enough, because a drawling voice interrupted his steady trek to freedom, though it would be brief.

"Novus." Malfoy smirked. "Not with your little friends? Have they finally abandoned you? I don't blame them, you're even lower than that Mudblood Granger."

Envy clenched his fists. The three other students in the room chose that moment to notice him as well, leaving him in the spotlight. This wasn't the first time; usually he had a larger audience, but of all the inconvenient moments . . .

"And really, that's saying something, since she's about as low as anyone can get without being a Muggle. Didn't you grow up in a Muggle orphanage?"

Envy's hand twitched toward his wand, but he resisted the urge to draw it. That would be a bad idea; who knew what kind of trouble he would get into for injuring the brat?

"Yeah, that sounds about right; did they teach you to roll in the mud with them?"

Wait, never mind, screw it. No way was he going to let that little piece of dirt insult him and everyone he knew.

Envy's hand shot into his pocket and his wand was out before he even registered drawing it, poised to fire a spell, _anything that could cause Malfoy pain—_ but before a word could slip over his tongue, Malfoy was incanting a spell of his own.

Not for the first time, his legs were jerked out from beneath him, leaving him suspended in midair.

One of the audience chuckled hesitantly, and was soon followed by another. This chain of events continued on until each of the few people in the room was laughing.

Embarrassment flooded through Envy, making his face grow red even faster than it already was, but anger soon overrode the emotion. "Why you little—" He then proceeded to curse Malfoy out in every way he knew—not with spells, his wand had fallen away from him when he was jerked from the ground, just words of every sour flavor.

The look on Malfoy's face changed from great amusement to mild shock at the expletives flying from his captive's mouth.

Once Envy couldn't think of a single new insult, he stopped, panting. How long had he been hanging there, upside down in the air? He was quite sure his face was growing purple by now from the blood rushing into his head. That brat had better let him down soon. . . .

However, Draco didn't seem to be in the sort of mood that allowed him to release anyone from a cruel spell of his. His face broke out into an amused smirk again when Envy stopped speaking, and he opened his mouth to say something new. "Well, looks like the Muggle mouths are as filthy as the dirt they roll in."

Envy couldn't help it. The anger running through him was too much to hold—he had been humiliated by this boy and his housemates time and time again, and he bore it despite how loudly his gut told him he needed to send them flying through the window and destroy them for their insolence, and this was the last straw.

His anger was given a physical form—more like one made of energy, actually. There was a small shockwave of bright light that shot about the room around him in an ever growing circle, and he dropped to the floor with a stifled yelp.

A small crash sounded as tables and chairs were knocked to the ground, then there was silence.

Envy clambered to his feet, blinking a couple of times and straightening his robes. He turned, observing the disheveled common room, just in time to see one of his classmates faint.

Malfoy stared at him in dumb incomprehension, his bodyguards doing the same and managing to look even stupider. The two other Slytherins who hadn't fainted blinked several times and rubbed their eyes, hair sticking up in every direction.

Well, that was unexpected. . . . Didn't have time to think about it, though, he still had to get his bag and hurry to the library.

With a small huff, Envy brushed off his robes one more time and stalked to his dormitory. He retrieved his bag from where he had left it under his bed for safekeeping from his dorm mates and marched back into the common room, where everyone was just getting over their shock.

"Well, well," Malfoy sneered. "Who would've thought that Novus hadn't gotten control over his accidental magic yet?"

"Shut it," Envy snapped, still continuing his journey across the room. He stopped halfway to retrieve his wand from the ground, then continued to the door, which he opened as fast as he could.

"If this continues, who knows how slowly—"

Gritting his teeth and resisting the urge to turn around, dash across the room, and punch Malfoy square in the face, Envy made his way down the dungeon hall and up into the entrance hall.

The stone wall slid closed behind him.

'-'

Envy made it to the library doors about three seconds after Ron, Harry, and Hermione did—it was practically a miracle that he wasn't suspiciously late, although that might have had something to do with the fact that he ran most of the way there.

Their stay in the library was dull and uneventful as usual. It wasn't until they exited the library that they were intercepted by Professor Snape. Or Envy was, at least.

"Mr. Novus," he began, "I heard about a certain . . . _incident_ down in the common room. Care to explain?"

Envy sighed. "Look, that was an accident. I didn't—"

"You almost destroyed it; the lake water nearly spilled into the dungeon. Your classmates could have died."

The rest of the quad was gaping, staring from Envy and Snape.

Envy crossed his arms. "Well—"

"That's another detention, Novus," Snape interrupted. "A week of them. Every evening after dinner, don't be late." With that he strode away, robes billowing behind him as usual.

"Uh . . ." Ron looked away from the Potion Master's retreating figure and stared at Envy in confusion. "What was that about?"

Envy groaned and dragged his hand down his face. "I'd rather not talk about it."

"What did he mean, 'another detention'?" Hermione asked, shifting the strap of her bag on her shoulder.

Harry frowned. "Why would the lake water flood the dungeon if you destroyed the common room?"

"Ugh! Okay, I'll explain when we're somewhere no one will hear. The other Slytherin's would kill me if they found out I told you. . . ." He muttered the last part, just loud enough for his friends to hear.

"Let's go down to the lake," Hermione suggested. "There aren't very many people there, I think, I saw out the window before we left the library."

Now that he thought about it, Envy remembered looking out the window too. How convenient that Hermione had remembered.

They passed few people as they made their way down to the ground floor. There had been several other students in the library as well, taking care of the homework they'd let sit yesterday in their eagerness to get to the Halloween feast, so that explained where several people were.

Not one of the students they encountered was a Slytherin, and Envy supposed they must have all heard about what happened in the common room and gone to have a look. If they had heard right, the weren't in for much of a surprise.

Hermione had been quite right when she said that there weren't many people by the lake. Three students chatted by a beech tree on the shore, and one other was seated on the ground a little farther away.

Envy waited until they had walked a safe distance around the lake before explaining anything. "All right, I have detention with Snape tonight because I snuck out last night to find you guys," he began, and from there explained what had happened last night and the events that had transpired in the common room a couple hours ago. When he finished, the expressions on his friends' faces ranged from worried and shocked to tentatively amused.

Harry repeated his question from earlier. "Why would the lake have spilled into your common room?"

"The Slytherin common room is in the dungeons, and dungeons extend under the lake," Envy explained. "If you look out the windows, you can see the squid and other things swim by sometimes."

"Huh. Cool."

"Oh, I wish I could've seen the look on Malfoy's face when you did accidental magic," Ron groaned.

Envy grinned. "It was priceless, not to mention all the other Slytherins. Crabbe and Goyle just looked stupider than usual."

"How can you find any of this funny?" Hermione snapped.

Harry decided to chip in here with his own depressing reminder. "Who knows what Snape's going to make you do in detention."

Envy's face fell slightly at this. "Yeah, well," he sighed, "I can take whatever he throws at me."

They all fell silent after that, though if Envy had to guess, he would say they all perceived the silence to be filled with something different. For Envy, it was a sense of dread and faded amusement. He was pretty sure he wouldn't be feeling this way if it weren't for Harry. Oh well.

'-'

As it turned out, Professor Snape had decided that the best punishment for Envy would be sorting the slimiest of potion ingredients.

Although Envy had correctly said he could take whatever Snape threw at him, he was rather displeased to be doing this.

He groaned and cursed under his breath when he dropped a frog liver for the fifth time. These things were so damn slippery! It was hard to look on the bright side of things, but if he cared to take a peek, he would remember that, "at least he was allowed to wear gloves."

Neither he nor Snape said a word to each other during the detention. Envy was pretty sure that he would end up cursing the professor out every time he tried to speak to him, so he supposed that was a good thing.

Snape let him go at last at about eleven o'clock, and when Envy returned to the common room, he found it was now completely undamaged.

The next evening's detention passed in much the same fashion as the previous, although Snape did say one thing;

"Watch where you put that crocodile heart."

Envy didn't answer; his tone would probably be aggressive enough that Snape would use it as an excuse to give him another detention for disrespect to a teacher, or something.

The third detention was also silent, just as the first; the only significant thing to happen was Envy realizing that he was starting to get the hang of handling the slimy potion ingredients.

Snape seemed to notice that he was getting more adept at handling what was being assigned to him and decided he might as well make it harder for him by switching to another ingredient. This was the fourth detention.

Envy shot the professor a glare as he sat down to sort the dried and crushed herbs he had been given to sort. The hard part of this was that if a single leaf ended up in the wrong bottle, a potion would be left in ruin, and the maker might not even know it and therefore end up doing something terrible to themselves.

By this time, Envy was getting quite used to this routine; enter, sit at a table with the potion ingredients, and sort them. It was all becoming rather dull. He kind of wished something interesting would happen.

He skipped the fifth. As it happened, he didn't skip because he was annoyed at having to go; he skipped because he was upset.

As you can tell, this was not a daily occurrence. It wasn't even weekly, or monthly, for that matter—Envy hadn't been this upset since the moment before he killed himself, though he wouldn't admit it.

It had all started after the last classes ended on the day of the fourth detention. Envy had hurried to put his bag away in his dormitory before any other Slytherins made it down and sprinted back to the doors of the Great Hall to wait for Ron, Hermione, and Harry.

And he waited. And he waited.

This was taking way too long. . . .

And finally, once the doors had opened to allow students entrance and many of the seats in the Great Hall were filled, along they came.

Envy noticed Ron was slightly red in the ears when they made it to him, and also vaguely irritated. Harry and Hermione looked a little ruffled.

Envy raise his eyebrows at the sight. "Mind telling me why you're so late?" He addressed the question to Hermione, leaving the other two to watch.

"Well, we went poking about the area where Mrs. Norris was petrified," she began, and then proceeded to explain what had happened in Moaning Myrtle's bathroom and their being caught by Percy.

Ah, that explained why Ron's ears were red.

They headed into the Great Hall then, and after a short search, they were able to acquire seats somewhere near the middle of the Gryffindor table.

"Anything interesting happen today?" Envy asked, ladling soup into a bowl. He would have preferred a sandwich, but they didn't serve those at dinner.

"Well," Hermione started, continuing to be the main speaker of the Gryffindors, "I asked about the Chamber of Secrets in History of Magic—" She explained what had happened, occasionally being interrupted by Ron and Harry, who added unimportant details such as Binns's surprise that anyone wanted to ask a question.

"Slytherin's monster, eh?" Envy frowned. "I haven't heard anything about that before."

"Well, you are sort of isolated," Hermione said tentatively. She paused. "Maybe you could ask around a bit?"

Envy snorted. "You kidding? They'll tear me to bits. Even the ones who don't do anything to me aren't remotely friendly if I try to talk to them." He chewed and swallowed a spoonful of soup. "I figured that out a while ago."

Hermione winced, and Harry nodded understandingly. Ron remained silent.

They ate without speaking for a little while, passing glances every now and then before Ron spoke up.

"Don't s'pose you know who the heir could be, do you Envy?"

Envy looked up from where he was spooning the last of his soup into his mouth. He waited until after he had swallowed to reply. "Well, it could be anyone. I don't talk to any of them, and I only talked to a few of them once or twice before they all decided I was a blood traitor."

"It could be Malfoy," Ron suggested.

Envy scoffed. "That wuss? No way."

"But it could be," Ron persisted. "Like you said, it could be anyone."

'-'

Anyone indeed; that was the start of everything. Over the next day, Envy could feel a kind of invisible wall building between he and Ron—not exactly hostility, but more like a sort of suspicious caution coming from his red-haired friend. He didn't notice it at first; everything seemed normal, rumors flying about the heir, classes, meeting up with friends at meals, but it grew more noticeable as the day wore on.

He wasn't sure why it was there at first; as far as he knew, he had given Ron no reason to fear him—but while listening to some particular rumors, he remembered.

He had said anyone could be the heir last night. But the prime suspects were Slytherins, and—well, Envy was a Slytherin.

He supposed it made sense that Ron would pin him as one of the suspects. He had never been as close to the red-head as he was to Harry and Hermione, what with Ron's animosity toward all Slytherins, and he had always been close to toeing the line of suspicion with him.

But even after realizing it made sense, it still stung a bit. He didn't have many friends, and one of the few he did was drifting away from him.

It was even worse the day after that, the day he skipped detention. Envy supposed Ron must have had time to think when he was lying awake in bed, and so the suspicion had grown deeper.

Ron was always sure not to seat himself directly next to Envy during breakfast and lunch. They didn't speak to each other, and Envy had noticed Harry sending him wary glances once or twice.

It wasn't until dinner that anything happened; they arrived slightly late, and though they managed to find seats at the end of the Gryffindor table near the doors, Envy and Ron ended up sitting next to each other.

The four of them remained uncharacteristically silent as they consumed their dinner, and Envy could practically feel Harry and Hermione's gazes trailing to and from he and Ron every few minutes

After awhile of this uncomfortable quiet, Ron finally said something. "Are you ever going to go back to sitting at the Slytherin table, Envy?" It was stated casually, but Envy could feel the underlying suspicion.

He tensed slightly. "Only during feasts. Snape makes sure I sit with Slytherin during all the important things. Other than that, I think I'll stay here." He took a sip of pumpkin juice, trying to keep his face neutral. He really didn't like where this was going. . . .

"I don't suppose you could head over there and _pretend_ to be one of them for a night?" Picking up his fork, Ron stabbed a bit of his roast beef with a little too much ferocity.

Envy's eye twitched, and he fought to keep from giving Ron a deadly glare. "And just _why_ would I do that?" He wasn't able to keep the restrained hostility from penetrating his voice.

"Maybe because you're one of them."

That. Was. _It._

Envy's hands slammed on the table. "You know what?" he snarled. "If you want everyone to return to their tables so badly, why don't _you_ go to the one where the arrogant _pigs_ sit? Because I'm pretty sure that's where you belong!"

By now, he had caught the attention of several of the people seated around him

"A-arrogant pigs?" Ron spluttered.

"Yes, they're all just like you over there—maybe they could even teach you a lesson about being more superior than you already are!"

"I wasn't being superior, I was just saying that maybe you should go back to the slimy Slytherin table where you belong!"

"Oh, but that's not all, is it?" Envy hissed. "You suspect me, don't you?"

Ron's face was contorted with anger and slowly growing redder. "Of course I do! Even if you're not all like the rest of them, you're still a bloody Slytherin!"

Envy stood up, and the feet of his chair scraped loudly against the floor. "Well," he growled, "I guess I should leave you before your Gryffindor purity is tainted by my depraved Slytherin soul." He looked up and glanced around.

Nearby Gryffindors and students from the tables on either side of them were staring, some of them whispering to each other. The head table was far enough away that none of the teachers had noticed, except maybe Dumbledore, who seemed to look away the moment Envy's gaze turned toward him.

Hermione and Harry were staring between he and Ron, eyes wide.

Envy scoffed, then pushed his chair into the aisle between house tables and stalked away, out of the Great Hall.

Dinner would be ending soon. That meant detention. Well, screw that. Who cared about a damn detention? It didn't do anything for him, and Snape didn't seem to find it pleasurable to make sure he was sorting things correctly anyway.

Envy stalked down the stairs to the dungeon, glaring at the stone wall which led to the common room and walking straight past it. Down, down, deep into the part of the dungeons where no one ever went.

Once he was sure he was far enough from everyone else that no one would hear or find him, he sat down outside one of the doors that lined the walls and put his head in his hands. The anger washed away.

Merlin, he'd been so stupid. Why had he retaliated? He'd probably made Ron's suspicion worse, and if it wasn't, he would certainly be openly hostile now. He wouldn't be able to go near him without causing conflict, which meant also avoiding Harry and Hermione. . . . Bah, what did it matter? He'd seen the wary looks Harry had shot him over the day, and who knew? Maybe Hermione would start suspecting him as well.

Damn it, damn it . . .

A tear slipped out of his eye. He wiped it away furiously.

He shouldn't have gotten attached. Friendships didn't last, and even if they did, one of the friends would die in the end. He supposed he had proven that when he shot Maes Hughes.

That friendship wouldn't have ended, though, if he hadn't come along and done it himself. Or maybe it would have. Perhaps Pride would have reached out with his shadows and made sure there was nothing left of it, or Lust would have caught up and stabbed the officer in the back.

Damn this hurt.

More tears threatened to spill, and he didn't bother to suppress them.

Losing a friendship wasn't supposed to be this painful, was it? He didn't know . . . it wasn't like he'd been sad when Greed left that first time. Just annoyed and perhaps a bit angry that he was abandoning them for his own cause instead of helping Father. But that didn't really matter anymore, did it? He was somewhere else now, and there weren't any homunculi here. Unless one were to count him, but he was a human now, wasn't he? Not having to fulfill any goals other than his own, able to form attachments if he pleased.

He shouldn't have gotten attached.

* * *

 **Yes, that was long. So long. And the end was more emotional than originally intended. Also, Envy loves sandwiches! :D . . . And he thinks one argument means he's lost all his friends. . . . He's so inexperienced with friendship. XD**

 **So, I plan my chapters ahead of time. And about half of what I planned for this chapter didn't happen because it got too long. Yeup.**

 **Anyway, please review! If you spotted any mistakes that I missed, please point them out!**

 **-Quiet Leaf**


	17. Chapter 17

Envy didn't talk to his (former) friends after "The Incident". Every now and then he would catch Ron shooting him a guilty glance from across a corridor, something which he ignored with barely a thought. As far as he was concerned, they were no longer friends.

He was completely fine with that, of course. Even if Harry and Hermione seemed concerned, they were always with Ron, who he refused to go near: besides, the empty space where they once stood was filled half the time by Colin, babbling away at his elbow about everything from classes to flying lessons to gossip.

"Do you know who the Heir of Slytherin is, Envy? . . . It's not you, is it?"

With that he would always respond with a laugh. "Who knows, maybe I am!" There were other times when he would quite bluntly say, "No."

He was only with Colin a part of the time, however; that boy had other friends, and was both in another year and a different house.

He never sat anywhere other than the Slytherin table during meals. Free time was spent wandering the halls, sitting in the library or abandoned classrooms, and sometimes helping Colin with his homework if he was pestered for long enough.

The first time he saw them more than just in passing was Potions class. Now, here the choice was two things; sit with the Slytherins, have some random incorrect ingredient thrown into his cauldron during a delicate stage of the process, have it explode in his face, and then unwillingly take all the blame. On the other hand, he could sit among the Gryffindors, where Harry would shoot him wary looks, Hermione would be worried, and Ron would just glare at him and mess up his own potion.

Slytherin almost sounded preferable.

He settled for a mixed option; sit on the border between Gryffindor and Slytherin, but as far from those three as possible. It seemed like a good idea—after all, then he wouldn't be able to see them from where he was. But even so, he could feel their gazes burning into his back every minute. Concentration thrown out the window, his potion ended as, rather than a sunny greenish yellow, a sluggishly bubbling mass of thick dark gray.

As such, instead of hurrying from the room in the end as he had been planning, Envy was forced to stay behind, scrubbing the last of the stuff from the sides of his cauldron.

As he was picking at a particularly stubborn lump, a sour, monotonous voice spoke behind him.

"I see that you've abandoned those three." Snape spat the last two words as if they were something for which one should feel strong malice. Well, Envy supposed that was his view on things.

"Maybe I have, maybe I haven't."

"Well, allow me to offer some advice."

Envy's scrubbing stopped. Advice? From Snape? What was the world coming to? He sighed, not turning from his cauldron. "Listen, whatever you have to say—"

"Value your friendships while you have them, Mr. Novus. Otherwise they may disappear more quickly than you expect."

. . . The hell? He certainly hadn't expected that. He'd thought perhaps Snape would say something like, "Join the Slytherins, we're all purebloods here," or something, anything that would encourage him to stay away from Gryffindors. This was exactly the opposite. "What do you mean?"

"It's exactly what it sounds like, Novus," Snape sneered.

Now sure that Snape would not be giving him a clear answer, he absentmindedly resumed washing his cauldron. Papers shuffled at the desk behind him. Time passed this way for—Envy glanced at his watch—about seven minutes before he decided it was all clean, with that thought, he finished packing up and left. Snape didn't so much as glance up to watch him leave.

He wasn't miserable throughout all this. Of course not. He had plenty of homework and classes to occupy his time and keep himself away from any miserable thoughts—not that he'd have any if he wasn't occupied.

The first Quidditch game of the season was drawing near, taking place between Gryffindor and Slytherin, as usual, and tensions between the rival houses were—well, not quite running high, more like they were running medium, or something. Anyway, people were occasionally jinxed in the corridors, which could be fun to watch, and this year he wasn't on the receiving end of any nasty spells.

When the morning of the match finally rolled around, Envy was pulled along to the field by the current of excited students. His opinions had been warped last year by his mixed house friendships, but now he was pretty sure that . . . well, he didn't particularly like Slytherin anyway, so Gryffindor was his bet. No, of course he didn't want Harry to win, it had nothing to do with that.

By now, no one was surprised to see him sitting in the Gryffindor section of the stands. There did seem to be some confusion from the less knowledgeable first years, however.

Unsurprisingly, he found Colin in the very top row, decked out with Gryffindor flags, two scarves, and a skewed red and gold hat with a Gryffindor lion emblazoned on the front. A bit overkill for the year's first match, but he supposed this was Colin's first time seeing a proper Quidditch game.

The first year greeted him with a great deal of enthusiasm, buzzing with excited energy. His friends, who were sitting in the seats next to him, seemed slightly less pleased to see him, but accepted him into their group nonetheless.

The sky was overcast with dark clouds, about the same color his failed potion had been, and the air was thick (like his potion) with the feeling of impending rain.

The moment the teams walked out onto the field, a great roar erupted from the crowd. Boos and cheers intermingled, and Envy joined in the cacophony. No doubt he was going to need some sort of remedy for his ears after this was all over, but that could wait.

It wasn't long until all fourteen brooms zoomed into the air, taking their positions wherever they belonged, and the game was on.

Not more than one minute in, a Bludger went rogue. It just so happened to go after Harry, and it was then that it started to rain.

A timeout was called a little while later, and the teams flew down to meet each other. Envy, as well as several other people, stopped mid-cheer.

"This is great!" The grin on Colin's face was impossibly wide. "How many more games are there gonna be?"

Envy shrugged. "No idea, I don't keep track."

Colin opened his mouth to say something, but the sound of Madam Hooch's whistle pierced the air, and the players took off again.

The Bludger followed Harry with renewed vigor now, and he had to dodge it even as he resumed his place in the air.

Envy's focus somehow drifted away from Harry, and he eventually found himself screaming, "GET THAT BASTARD!" as one of the Weasley twins hit the behaving Bludger at Adrian Pucey. He hated Adrian.

A startled gasp found its way out of the mouth of one of Colin's friends, and Envy followed her gaze to where Harry was close to sliding off his broom. His arm, even from this distance, looked . . . well, wrong, and the Bludger was now looping around to hit him for what was presumably the second time. Malfoy hovered nearby, sneering—the little shit—and an almost unnoticeable golden glint hovered over his shoulder, visible even through the pouring rain.

Ah, the Snitch.

Harry seemed to know it was there—that or he wanted to attack Malfoy, for he then dove straight toward him.

Malfoy swerved clumsily out of the way, but that didn't seem to matter to Harry. Everyone's eyes were on him now as he let go of his broom, snatched the golden ball from the air, and went crashing to the ground.

At this point, Envy realized that it had been unwise to choose such a high seat—everyone else was in front of him, allowing for them to be able to rush into the field first. Colin disappeared from his side sometime while he was attempting to push his way through the crowd, and by the time he made it onto the field, Harry had been carried off to the hospital wing.

He did manage to find Colin once he neared the edge of the field. The boy had already managed to reunite with all his friends by that time, and was now babbling away.

"—then Lockhart said this spell, and you know what happened?" He didn't wait for a reply before continuing. "Harry's bones disappeared!"

Envy, still a couple strides behind Colin, had a bit of trouble processing that sentence. After he had at last managed to comprehend what had been said, he marched straight past the babbling boy and his friends and continued his pace all through the castle.

However, just as he was drawing near, the doors to the hospital wing flew open. Ron, Hermione, and the entire Gryffindor Quidditch team spilled out all at once, followed by Madam Pomfrey's unmistakable voice shouting about regrowing bones.

He dashed back around the corner immediately. For one, it seemed as if visitors were not being allowed at the moment, and for another, he did not wish to see or talk to Ron Weasley. A visit could wait.

'-'

Envy went to visit Harry right after breakfast ended the next morning. He had been rather surprised, and perhaps a bit disappointed, when Colin didn't come to say good morning like he usually did, but stubbornly brushed it off. It wasn't like he needed emotional support or anything.

He knocked once when he reached the hospital wing doors, then opened the them a crack.

Madam Pomfrey was bustling about with a breakfast tray, bringing it to Harry, who was sitting up in bed.

He opened the door a little wider, and the nurse, now done giving Harry his food, finally noticed him.

"Ah, Mr. Novus. What do you need?"

"Uh . . ." He glanced at Harry, who gazed back with a slightly surprised expression. "Just need to talk to that poor kid who got his arm snapped in two by a Bludger. What was his name again. . . ?" He put on a look of mock concentration, then snapped his fingers as if it had just dawned on him. "Larry Otter, that was it."

Pomfrey sighed at his antics. "Very well. Mr. Potter is just over there."

"Thanks." He skipped over, noticing one of the beds to be surrounded by curtains as he went, and stopped at the foot of Harry's bed.

They stared at each other for a moment. Envy was unsure of what to say—he hadn't planned this far. Harry seemed just as much at a loss for words, glancing down at his spoon and not meeting Envy's eyes. Envy had just opened his mouth to say something, anything to break the unbearable silence, but Harry spoke first.

"Look—" He paused and glanced up. "I'm sorry about—about Ron. He was being stupid, and I should have said something."

Envy groaned. "It's not your fault, you probably would have made it even worse." He was pretty sure he knew how human anger worked by now. "But you _should_ be sorry about those looks you've been giving me."

"Oh, yeah . . . sorry about that."

They were both silent again. Envy tried to think of something to say.

"So . . . you have a boneless arm."

Harry shook his head. "Madam Pomfrey regrew the bones, it's a bit stiff now, that's all."

"Oh, come on! I would've loved to see that!"

"It wasn't that funny," Harry chuckled. "It was really just useless."

"Still funny to me, though." Envy grinned. "So tell me, how did that happen? I only heard part of it."

"Oh, well, there's not much to tell. Lockhart thought he'd fix my arm, so he said something and the next moment it didn't have any bones." He glanced around and lowered his voice. "Madam Pomfrey was furious."

"Ha! I can imagine the look on her face." Envy plucked a bit of fried egg off Harry's plate.

"Yeah, it could've been funny if she wasn't so scary." Harry seemed to realize that he hadn't been eating and spooned a mouthful of porridge into his mouth. He ate in silence.

Envy glanced around, not quite wanting to leave. The feeling of relief when Harry apologized had been overwhelming, and Envy had to resist the urge to burst into hysterical laughter, but now he didn't know what to say again.

Pomfrey came over a short while later and began bending Harry's arm and fingers in different ways. Envy left then to wait outside the doors, and Harry emerged a few minutes later.

They wandered for a while without speaking. Envy was forced to wait outside the Gryffindor common room once, so he was guessing Harry was looking for Ron and Hermione. He was not looking forward to the conversation that was to come.

After coming upon Percy Weasley outside the library, Harry seemed to get an idea, and he and Envy both headed down to the second floor corridor. Remembering what Percy had said about hoping Ron wasn't hanging around a girls bathroom again, he realized exactly where they were going. Though why those two would be in there, Envy hadn't the slightest idea.

Sure enough, as soon as they opened the door, Hermione and Ron's voices were clear to hear echoing from one of the stalls.

"It's me," Harry called as Envy closed the door behind them.

There was a gasp and a splash from the stall, and a moment later Hermione's eye peered through the keyhole. She breathed a startled greeting and began to open the door. Then her eyes, now both revealed through the open door, fell on Envy. "Oh . . . hello, Envy," she said uncomfortably.

"Hi," he grunted. "So, is there a party I wasn't told about?"

"Well, sort of." She opened the door wider so both Envy and Harry could squeeze through. "It's nice to see you again."

"Yeah." Still didn't know what to say.

Envy made what he was sure were quite visible efforts to keep from ending up next to Ron. Harry seemed to notice this—that's why he was sure his attempts were noticeable—and so he put himself between them.

By now it was very cramped.

"What's this?" Envy asked, gesturing to the bubbling cauldron on the toilet seat.

"Oh, well . . ." Hermione then explained what they were doing. Ron glared at Envy the whole time, although there seemed to be an underlying layer of guilt.

Once she had finished, he finally spoke up. "Are you sure we can trust him?"

Hermione opened her mouth to say something, but Envy broke in before she could speak. "Did you ever think that I might be able to help you? I _am_ a Slytherin, I know where the common room is and how to get in."

"I thought of it," Hermione began, shooting Ron a glare. "But Ron wouldn't listen."

"Not surprised."

They were silent for a moment before Harry spoke.

"Did you hear about Colin? They brought him in last night—"

"We already know—we heard Professor McGonagall telling Professor Flitwick this morning. That's why we decided we'd better get going—"

"Wait, wait," Envy interrupted. "What are you talking about? What happened to Colin?" He recalled the curtained bed in the hospital wing, and an inkling of dread and suspicion trickled its way to the forefront of his mind.

Harry and Hermione exchanged a glance, and Ron took to staring at the corner of the stall above Envy's head.

"W-well," Hermione started, "it's not like they won't be able to undo it, it just might take a while, is all—"

"Spit it out already."

"He—Colin was petrified last night." She said the words in a rush, as if to get them out as fast as possible.

Okay. Okay. He'd been expecting that. Nothing wrong.

"UGH!" No wonder he hadn't come over that morning. No wonder that bed was curtained.

Why was everything going wrong this year?

* * *

 **Well. Sorry this took so long. Over a month, eh? Hehehe . . . yeah . . . I'd like to say that I'll try to update more frequently, but I'm a bit busier with school now, I'm trying to finish my NaNoWriMo novel, I need to update Heist, and I want/need to get another original novel done before June. Which is difficult and time-consuming, if you didn't realize. This doesn't mean I'm going on hiatus or anything! I'm just not going to update too frequently. Not that I did before, or anything. . . .**

 **As for why Snape gave Envy friendship advice, if you didn't already realize, Envy is similar at this point to how Snape was as a child; a Slytherin with friendship(s) in Gryffindor that disappeared due to stigma. He also has long hair, but that doesn't really matter. Anyway, I was thinking that Envy reminds Snape of himself and that he doesn't want this friendship to go the same way.**

 **On another note, today is the one year anniversary of the day this fic was published, so . . . HAPPY BIRTHDAY, NO LONGER ENVIOUS! :D**

 **Please review! Point out any mistakes you come across so I can fix them. Until next time!**

 **-Quiet Leaf**


	18. Chapter 18

**What can I say except, "I'm sorry!" for taking so long to update, "Hey it's okay!" you say, but I'm sorry!—*ahem* Anyway, I'm back (maybe?) with a shorter chapter and an updated writing style. Fits my personality better. What has it been since I last updated, six months? Yeah, six months. Nearly seven.**

 **Read on and enjoy, unless you don't want to!**

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The space by Envy's elbow was empty.

If Colin had been gone from it for any reason other than petrification (or, you know, death), he would have been celebrating his new-found elbow room. Unfortunately, this elbow room was not there for a good reason, and was therefore unwelcome.

Envy had spent the last few days trudging around with unhappy grumbles on the tip of his tongue and snappish remarks ready to strike at even the slightest inkling of provocation. Even with their friendship with him restored, Harry, Ron, and Hermione were tiptoeing around him as though he were about to explode—which he kinda was, but it was still annoying.

He was currently lounging around in the Gryffindor common room. Harry had lent him a Gryffindor tie so he could get in, but after a second glance, even the dimmest of first years couldn't be fooled by his measly disguise. No one mentioned it anyway, except for a bossy prefect who he'd diligently ignored. No idea where she was anymore.

He tossed his wand into the air, ignoring both the flames in the fireplace before him and the stares and whispers of the actual Gryffindors, who were wondering why their common room was being invaded by someone who clearly was not meant to be there.

His friends had yet to arrive, in spite of the fact that they were the ones who had said they'd meet him here.

He caught his wand.

Come to think of it, maybe when Hermione had said, "Meet us at Gryffindor tower," she'd meant, "Meet us in front of the portrait of the Fat Lady." Oh well. He'd just wait until they came in to drop off their books.

Envy tossed his wand in the air again, and almost forgot to catch it when he heard the portrait hole open. He peered around, hoping to be greeted by the sight of his friends coming to meet him, and his heart sank when instead he saw the prefect from earlier weaving her way through the room, accompanied be a very stern-looking Professor Mcgonagall. Aaand they were coming his way. Perfect.

The moment she spotted him, Professor McGonagall's lips pressed into a line thin enough to rival the stick figures Envy doodled on the edges of his homework. "Mr. Novus!" she shrilled.

The common room went silent.

"What in Merlin's name are you doing in here?" She stormed closer. "This is _not_ your common room! How did you get in?"

"Uh . . ." Envy turned briefly to tuck the Gryffindor tie out of sight before giving his answer. "Waiting for my friends."

McGonagall's nostrils flared. "I don't suppose these friends of yours have given you the password?"

". . . Nnnooo. No, they have not."

"Then how exactly did you get in?"

"Through the door."

McGonagall fixed him with a stern glare. "Come with me, Mr. Novus. We will be talking to Professor Snape about what to do with you."

Envy cringed, but as much as he would have liked to jump out the window, there was no escaping once you had been struck with the McGonagall Glare™. So he shouldered his bag, stuffed his wand in his pocket, stuck his tongue out at the smug prefect, and followed McGonagall out of the common room.

Halfway down the corridor, they were met with the startled trio of Ron, Hermione, and Harry.

McGonagall stopped short of them and peered at them over her square spectacles. "You three wouldn't happen to be the reason why Mr. Novus was found lounging around the Gryffindor common room, would you?"

Three pair of eyes widened in shock. Harry's and Ron's mouths dropped open, and Hermione's face had adopted a despairing expression. Envy was pretty sure he knew exactly what was going on in her head; she didn't want to get herself or her friends in trouble (there was no saving Envy), but she couldn't lie to a teacher.

"W-well . . ." she stuttered.

Envy would have groaned if it wouldn't have made things more suspicious.

"All I—all _we_ told him was to meet us by Gryffindor tower. We didn't tell him to go inside."

McGonagall raised an eyebrow. "And did you tell him the password?"

Envy glanced between his friends; Ron looked horror-struck, and he was shaking his head frantically at Hermione; Harry's face was a mix of nervous and confused; Hermione was biting her lip pensively. She bowed her head in shame.

Ron's head-shaking grew in intensity, and he mouthed the word, "No", at Hermione, who couldn't see it anyway since she had her back to him and was staring at her shoes. Harry slowly took up the head-shaking as well.

"Yes," Hermione mumbled, "we did."

Ron and Harry looked devastated.

McGonagall sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose. "As much as I appreciate inter-house relations, Miss Granger, as a Slytherin, Mr. Novus is not allowed in any common room other than his own." She glanced over the three Gryffindors who were cowering before her. "You three will be coming with us as well."

With all that said and done, Hermione, Harry, and Ron joined their probably detention-bound group, and they were on their way once again. The atmosphere grew steadily more uncomfortable until Ron broke the silence. "Why were you in the common room?" he whispered.

"Misinterpreted Hermione's invitation," Envy muttered.

Hermione groaned. "I knew it, I knew I should have been clearer."

Envy shrugged. "Might've done it anyway." That was completely untrue.

They reached Snape's office about six minutes later. McGonagall knocked, and after a minute of waiting and impatient foot tapping, the door was opened.

Snape stared at their unimpressive group without a hint of surprise. "In trouble again?"

Mcgonagall cleared her throat. "May we come in?"

"Of course," Snape sneered. He opened the door wider and stepped aside, allowing everyone to file into his office. The manner in which he closed the door felt like an omen of the punishment they would soon be receiving.

Snape strode around his desk and sat down in his chair. "To what do I owe the pleasure of your visit?"

Envy plopped himself in the chair across from Snape, who glared at him, but did not reprimand him for neglecting to wait for permission to sit.

"Mr. Novus was found in the Gryffindor common room—breaking no less than three school rules in the process," McGonagall stated. "We came here to discuss his punishment."

Snape raised an eyebrow. "Ah. And those three?" He gestured to Ron, Hermione, and Harry.

"They are the ones responsible for telling him the password."

Snape looked like he was trying to contain an evil cackle—though Envy couldn't actually imagine him ever laughing. "Is that so? Well, I would be more than happy to help arrange their detentions."

McGonagall sighed. "As their head of house, I will be handling their punishments. We're here to discuss Mr. Novus."

Snape nodded with a displeased downturn of the lips. "Very well. Mr. Novus will have detention with me for the next two days."

"As well as twenty points from Slytherin," McGonagall pushed. Snape nodded, and McGonagall straightened up. "I will be leaving Mr. Novus with you, Professor Snape. Good day." She swept around and strode out the door, Hermione, Harry, and Ron trailing behind her. Hermione sent Envy a guilty glance.

Well, that was fun. Too bad about the detentions, though.

Snape sighed when the door closed, rubbing the bridge of his nose. "Mr. Novus, I can understand that you might find it enjoyable to break certain rules, but sometimes you need to restrain yourself." He leaned forward. "Try not to lose any more house points—or gain more detentions. You're sending Slytherin house's reputation down the drain."

Envy grinned. "Right on!—I mean, yes sir." He didn't mean it.

"Meet me here after dinner tomorrow for your detention. Dismissed."

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 **Well, I had a lot more fun writing that than I've had with a lot of things lately. Haven't really been in a mood to write anything for the last several months, least of all this.**

 **This chapter wasn't really important at all, but I wanted to write something for this story. Maybe the detentions will do something important, I dunno. I have a vague idea of what happens next chapter.**

 **I'm considering skipping ahead a few years to get to things that are more relevant to the plot, if there even is one. If I were to do that, I'm not really sure what year we'd end up at. Have to do some thinking first.**

 **Hope you enjoyed, please review!**

 **-Quiet Leaf**


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